A Glitch in Time
by GaDS2000
Summary: She can do anything. He can solve everything. Together they've saved the world, but can even they save existence itself?
1. Prologue Mission Time

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Prologue:

The lithe figure successfully threaded its way through the latest maze of deathtraps, springing and rolling through the lethal barrage of ray-blasts with a skill that bordered almost on prescience. Once past the deadly obstacles the form then pressed against the rough rock wall of the passage leading from the chamber, vanishing into the shadows and moving as silently as a ghost. The intruder moved forward cautiously, wary of any further traps, and was concerned rather than relieved when it encountered none. After making sure that no one was within earshot the figure pulled a small device from a side pouch and activated it. A small video screen lit up, showing a young black boy surrounded by computer equipment.

"Wade. You there?" the intruder whispered. The voice, while cool and authoritative, was nonetheless soft and distinctly feminine.

"As always, Kim," a youthful voice replied. "What's up?"

"I'm in a corridor of sorts, but there doesn't seem to be anything trying to stop me in here. Could you give me a scan and let me know what the sitch is?"

Wade smiled. "Done and done. Just hold up the Kim-municator and give me a second." Kim did so and a thin sheet of purple light shot from the device, scanning the passage from floor to ceiling. Wade shook his head. "I'm reading nothing. Based on that and your GPS coordinates my guess is that you're in the final passage leading to the main lab. The device should be in there."

"Roger that. I'm going in." Kim replaced the Kim-municator and raced down the corridor, secure in Wade's assurance that the way was free of danger. The passageway was perhaps a hundred yards long, and Kim slowed only when her sharp eyes detected a brighter glow coming from in front of her. As she drew nearer she could see that it was the entrance to a large, well-lit chamber. She hugged one of the rock walls and edged closer, determined to carefully survey the inside of the new area before stepping in. As she was making her examination a cold, accented voice called out to her.

"Kim Possible," the voice said, almost as though identifying a familiar but unexpected species of bacteria. "It's been a while. Please, come inside. I'm sure that it must be drafty out there for you."

Seeing no point in remaining in the corridor Kim stepped inside. "Professor Dementor," she replied in a cold but civil voice as the masked figure stepped out on a catwalk far above. "It has been a while." She gestured towards an imposing contraption humming quietly in the center of the lab. "And I take it that this is the temporal complosion device you stole?"

"That?" Dementor pointed to the large machine in surprise. "Actually, no. That's just the central air conditioning unit. You wouldn't believe how hot and muggy it can get down here." He reached behind him and pulled out a device that resembled a notebook computer. "This is the complosion device."

"Then I'll thank you to hand it over," Kim said easily. "They won't let you keep it in prison, anyway."

"I'm afraid that I can't do that," the evil professor replied. "I have some very big plans for this little device. Plans that, I'm afraid, I can't let you or your companion interfere with." Dementor snapped his fingers and a half dozen burly henchmen emerged from various shadows, hemming Kim in. He looked around. "Where is your companion, anyway? Aren't you two an item now?"

It was the wrong thing to say. With a snarl Kim snatched what looked like a hair dryer from the belt at her side and fired a grappling hook up towards the catwalk on which Dementor was standing. The hook wrapped around the railing and a press on a second button reeled the trailing line in, pulling Kim up and away from the startled henchman and towards their leader.

Dementor pounded the railing in frustration. "When will I remember she has that thing?" he chided himself angrily. He turned to run and was stopped in his tracks when Kim, anticipating this move, swung herself up and onto the catwalk in front of him. "Game over, Dementor," she growled. "Give it up."

Her opponent struck a megalomaniacal pose. "Give up? Never!" he cried. He removed what appeared to be a metallic billiard ball from a pouch in his costume and hurled it at the young woman blocking his way. Kim, however, had dealt with Dementor often enough to expect something like this. She flipped out of the way of the projectile and let it fall to the floor below, where it disintegrated into a cloud of thick blue smoke in the midst of Dementor's henchmen and caused them to stiffen into so many immobile statues. In retaliation Kim lashed out with a side kick at Dementor as she landed, striking the temporal complosion device and sending it spinning into space.

"The comploder!" Dementor cried in horror as it hit the floor. "What have you done?" He seized Kim's grappling line and slid down with Kim in hot pursuit. Rather than attempt to escape, however, Dementor seemed more concerned with the battered device, which was sputtering and humming erratically. After a few frantic moments Dementor looked up at Kim with what she could see of his face pale as a ghost. "It's been activated," he spluttered. "I can't shut it off."

Somehow Kim knew that this was not a stall and definitely not a good thing. "What does it do?" she demanded.

"In this condition, I don't know," Dementor confessed. "Perhaps nothing, but perhaps…" He stopped and wordlessly gestured all around them.

Kim whipped out her Kim-municator. "Wade, we've got major issues here. The temporal complosion device has been damaged and activated, and Dementor is wigging big time about it."

Wade wasted no time with questions. "Let me see," he ordered. Obediently Kim held out the Kim-municator so that Wade could survey the damage and assess the situation. "Dementor's right," Wade said after a few seconds. "It appears that the primary generator circuit had been activated but it's running open loop. There's nothing controlling the reaction. It's just a matter of time before something gives."

"What do I do?" Kim asked.

Wade thought about it. "Plug the Kim-municator's universal adapter cable into the expansion port on the device," he instructed. "I'll try to compensate manually through the communications hook-up while you try to initiate the shutdown sequence."

"Yes!" Dementor cried excitedly. "That might work."

"Let's hope so." Kim did as Wade had told her, extending the retractable cable from the Kim-municator and plugging it into the matching connector on the complosion device. On the viewscreen she could see Wade typing feverishly and sweating as the humming from the device slowly became less erratic.

"Okay," Wade called out. "I've got it stabilized for the moment. Begin the shutdown sequence."

Kim looked helplessly at the controls. "Could you talk me through it?" she asked weakly.

Wade shook his head. "Not and compensate the reaction, Kim. It's up to you."

Dementor stepped between Kim and the temporal complosion device. "You mean it's up to me," he corrected with pride. As Kim watched he operated the numerous complex controls and muttered to himself as though reciting a checklist. "Interface buffers closed. Filtering controls reset. Conversion compensators deactivated."

The humming from the device was becoming erratic again. "Hurry up," Wade urged. "I can't hold it much longer."

"IF gain amplifiers powered down. Pre-ignition circuits off."

Wade's voice became almost pleading. "Hurry!"

"Stabilizers re-initialized. Main generators off-line!" Dementor stabbed at a final button just as the humming became a shriek of power and crackling tendrils of energy leapt from the device and knocked Kim and Dementor backwards. As they lay there, stunned, the scream of energy dopplered away into a faint hum before disappearing altogether.

It was Kim who stirred first. Groggily she retrieved the Kim-municator, which lay a few yards away, and noted that the adaptor cable was broken and charred although the rest of the device seemed unharmed. "It looks like we did it, Wade," she announced wearily. There was no answer. "Wade? You there?" Puzzled, she pressed a sequence of buttons to run the built-in diagnostics and was greeted with the message:

UNIVERSAL ADAPTOR CIRCUIT FAILURE 0x128

ALL OTHER CIRCUITS OK

_The Kim-municator is working_, she said to herself, _so what's the story? And what was with that energy discharge just before the device shut off?_ She heard Professor Dementor groan and walked over to him. Dementor blinked his eyes open just as Kim was leaning over him.

"Did…did we make it?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered. She squatted down next to the Dementor and laid a gentle but firm hand on his chest, keeping him pinned to the floor. "And now I have some questions to ask you."

Later, back at the Possible home, Kim's father and mother pored over the sheaf of figures, diagrams, equations, and readouts that Kim had brought back from Professor Dementor's secret lair. After some time Kim's father sighed and shook his head.

"Well?" asked Kim.

"It's pretty obvious that you don't need to be a rocket scientist or brain surgeon to understand this stuff," Kim's father replied.

"Really?" Kim asked hopefully.

Her mother nodded. "Yes. Because your father and I are and we can't make heads or tails of this."

Kim slumped unhappily in her chair. "But I need to know what this is all about. This was everything that Dementor could get on what the complosion device did just as we were shutting it off. And Wade's mother said she hasn't seen Wade since I last spoke to him. I'm positive that there's a connection." She pouted unhappily as she thought about it. "Wade's gotten me out of more jams than I can remember. If there's anything I can do to help him, I've got to do it."

"Now, now, Kim," her mother said, patting her shoulder. "We understand. We'd love to help, but we just aren't the right people. Have you checked with Ron?" Kim's silent glare made her mother beat a hasty retreat. "Not that you have to," she quickly assured her daughter. "Just an option, is all."

"I'll remember that," Kim said, her voice encrusted with icicles.

Her father tried to change the subject. "Offhand, Kimmie, I'd say you'd need to speak to a certified super-genius who's an expert on theoretical physics and chronospatial dynamics. Unfortunately everyone with those qualifications that I can think of is locked up in hush-hush government projects."

"Or apparently missing," her mother added.

Kim thought about what her parents had said and debated silently with herself for several minutes before she came to a decision and stood up. "Not everyone," she said.

"Come again?" her mother asked.

"If I need a super-genius," she said, "then I'm going to get one. What's the best way to get to Retroville?"

End of Prologue


	2. Chapter 1 Just Dropping In

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 1:

The C-5A Galaxy was a large aircraft by any standards, but seemed all the larger by the two solitary passengers in the otherwise empty cargo bay. Kim shifted uneasily as she looked about the cavernous compartment. The military officer next to her noted her discomfort.

"My apologies, Miss Possible," he said. "I'm afraid that this was the fastest transport I could arrange."

"Oh, no, no," Kim hastened to reassure him. "It's quite all right, General Abercrombie. I'm just not used to flying in anything bigger than my high school."

The general looked almost amused by that. "It's actually a good deal smaller than that. But it is quite an aircraft. Speed, range, and capacity – the C-5 has it all. Big enough to put a bowling alley in, if that's what you want."

"Well -"

"Of course, I'm not much for bowling," the general went on. "Golf is more my game. You can hit quite a drive in here."

"I'm sure you can," Kim commented diplomatically.

"Used to do that quite a bit, actually. Had to stop though. The pilot said the drives were starting to get him teed off." He slapped Kim on the shoulder, making her cough. "Just a little golf humor there."

Kim struggled to change the subject. "Well, it was really nice of you to accommodate me like this, being on such short notice and all."

"My pleasure, Missie," the general replied. "It's the least I could do after you helped us recover that experimental drone ship in New Mexico."

Kim winced inwardly at the term "Missie" but managed to smile and wave it off. "Hey, no big. Once I got past the automatic defense systems and hacked into the onboard computer it was a piece of cake."

A light on a speaker next to the general came on and a voice announced, "We're approaching Retroville air space, General. Shall we prepare to land?"

"How about it, Miss Possible?" General Abercrombie asked. "The C-5 can land in an amazingly short distance. Even the municipal airport probably has a runway we can use."

"No, thanks," Kim replied as she stood up and strapped on a helmet. "You can drop me off here. No sense in inconveniencing you any further." She moved towards the rear of the compartment and waited as the general signaled the pilot to open the rear cargo hatch. Once the massive hatch was open she waved farewell and dove headlong from the plane. The general watched and shook his head in open admiration.

"Nice girl," he remarked. "She'll make some lucky C.O. a fine little soldier some day."

High over the outskirts of Retroville Kim sliced headfirst through the air, looking for landmarks to help her plan her landing and waving to the startled pilot of an antique biplane cruising off to her left. Usually Wade would have given her up-to-the-minute coordinates using the global positioning system, but this time she had been forced to familiarize herself with the town's layout from maps downloaded from the Internet. The bright morning sun made it easy to spot the city's open spaces, and it took only a few moments for her to identify the school she was seeking. She adjusted her body slightly, letting it act as an airfoil in the rushing air to guide her towards her selected landing zone. Not far from the school was a park without too many trees and she decided that it would serve as the best landing zone. Nearly a thousand feet above the ground Kim deployed the parasail from her backpack and spiraled in for an easy landing on the soft grass. A touch of a button retracted the parasail and she stowed her helmet before heading for Lindbergh Elementary, looking very much the part of a basic average girl on the way to class.

Once at the school she paused, debating as to the best way to proceed. It was almost 10:00 AM and she decided to wait a while, reasoning that recess shouldn't be too far off. If nothing happened by 10:30 AM she could take a more direct approach by asking to see the principal but for now discretion seemed the wisest course of action. She found a shady spot under a tree and waited. At 10:15 AM a distant bell rang and Kim rose to her feet as she heard the unmistakable sounds of doors opening, young voices, and running feet that accompany school children rushing to recess. Kim maneuvered around the perimeter of the school yard, keeping a sharp lookout for the person she had come to see.

"Oh, man!" Sheen exulted. "Is there anything better than recess after two hours of boring class?"

"Yes," replied Carl, who was on Sheen's left. "Double-pudding Tuesdays."

Sheen did a double-take. "There's no double-pudding Tuesdays," he objected. After a moment's thought he added, "There aren't even single-pudding Tuesdays."

"It would still be better than recess," Carl pointed out.

"Guys, guys," Jimmy said. "I know something better than any of that. It's…" His voice trailed off as he spotted the slender young woman just outside the school yard gesturing to him.

"Well?" demanded Sheen.

"Don't keep us in suspense," prodded Carl.

"Excuse me…a minute," Jimmy mumbled, heading towards Kim. "I…uh…I have to see someone…about the…stuff…"

Bewildered, Sheen and Carl watched him go. As they caught sight of the girl Jimmy was meeting Sheen gave a low whistle. "I've got to admit, that is better than recess," he commented.

Carl nodded, his mouth open. "It's even better than double pudding." He quickly recovered and added, "Not that I like girls, but if I did…well, it would be better than double pudding."

Kim smiled at Jimmy's approach. "Hey, Jimmy. Nice to see you again."

"Kim? Kim Possible? What are you doing here?" Jimmy realized that he was being a little rude and returned Kim's smile. "Sorry. It's good to see you, too. But it's quite a surprise." He paused. "What's up?"

Jimmy noticed that Kim couldn't quite hide the worry that plagued her. "I'm not sure. Something's happened to Wade and…well, I think that you might be the only one who can help me. Can we go somewhere and talk?"

"Well…" Leaving school grounds was a major infraction, but even had Jimmy missed the worry in Kim's manner he knew that she wouldn't have traveled all the way from Middleton on a whim. "Yes, sure. My house isn't too far away. We can go to my lab."

Kim looked a little relieved. "That would be great. Thanks."

"Let's go then." Jimmy hopped the chain-link fence without much trouble and together he and Kim headed down the street. Sheen and Carl watched them go, filled with both shock and admiration at Jimmy's actions.

"You know, somehow my opinion of Jimmy just got a whole lot higher," Sheen mentioned.

"And how," Carl agreed.

"What's this about Nerd-tron?" a voice asked.

"Oh, hi, Cindy," Carl greeted the speaker as he turned around. "Nice day, isn't it?"

"That's not what she asked," Libby told him. "What were you and Sheen saying about Jimmy?"

"Nothing," Sheen evaded.

Libby put her hands on her hips. "You've got the same look you do every time the high school cheerleaders drive by here on the way to McSpanky's for lunch. What's up?"

"Nothing!" Sheen protested. "I don't even know her!"

Cindy frowned at this. "Know who?"

"Umm…uh…" Sheen stammered as his eyes shifted frantically left and right. Suddenly he pointed. "Oh, look! Over there!" he cried. He then beat a hasty retreat, leaving Carl to face Libby and Cindy alone.

Cindy turned menacingly on Carl. "Who?" she repeated.

"No one really pretty that we know," Carl hastened to say. "We don't know anyone pretty." When Cindy glared at him he faltered, "I mean, you're pretty, but no one we don't know is pretty. That is, people who are pretty are usually people we don't know."

For a split second Carl thought Cindy was satisfied, as a thoughtful expression replaced the suspicious frown on her face. Then Cindy calmly gathered the front of Carl's shirt in her fist and pulled him closer. "Who?" she repeated in an ominously calm, almost sweet, voice.

"I don't know!" Carl wailed. "All I know is that she has auburn hair and green eyes and she's pretty and she and Jimmy left the school without permission!"

Carl's description startled Cindy and she loosened her grip. "Auburn hair and green eyes?" Carl nodded silently. "Was she wearing a backpack and a black pullover with military-style pants?"

Carl looked surprised. "You know her?"

Cindy released Carl, who scampered off in the direction Sheen had gone, and ignored Libby's insistent questions as she pondered the news. _Kim Possible?_ she thought. _Here? In Retroville?_ Like Jimmy she knew that Kim would not have come all the way from Middleton on a school day on a whim. Something, Cindy was sure, was up. But what? And how did Jimmy fit in?

On the way to his house Jimmy tried to make small talk. "So, how are you and Ron doing?"

"Fine," Kim said sharply.

Jimmy realized he had struck a nerve and hastily retreated. "Sorry. Not my business," he apologized.

Kim sighed. "Sorry, Jimmy. I didn't mean to be so short. It's just…well…I don't really want to get into it, just now. That's all."

"No problem," Jimmy assured her. They reached his clubhouse and Jimmy activated the DNA scanner to gain access. "You'll have to excuse the lab. I didn't really expect company and I'm afraid the computer files and my equations are a real mess."

"That's okay," Kim replied. "You should see my room sometimes."

"Really?" Jimmy asked eagerly before realizing that it had been a casual response rather than an invitation. In an awkward attempt to recover, he added, "I kind of thought girls kept their rooms neater than guys."

"Maybe. Mom says I wasn't any better than the tweebs when I was their age."

"Maybe it's just an age thing, then," Jimmy concluded lamely as they dropped into the entry tube.

Inside the lab Kim looked around, visibly impressed by what she saw. "This is quite a place," she commented, inspecting Jimmy's reactor. "My younger brothers would have a field day in here."

Jimmy blushed at the semi-compliment. "Maybe you could bring them by some day," he suggested.

Kim shook her head. "The tweebs around a nuclear reactor? Mom and I don't even trust them with the microwave. But thanks for the offer." She shrugged out of her backpack and began removing the materials her father and mother had gone over the night before without success. "This is what I came to show you. No one else I can get hold of can figure it out."

"Not even the girl who built that kinematic continuum disrupter?" Jimmy asked.

"Justine Flanner? Sorry, Justine has left the building. She's off working on some extra credit special project somewhere."

Jimmy sounded puzzled. "She couldn't ask the teacher for an extension on that?"

"If it were a school project, yes. But the government is backing this one. Something about getting a guaranteed research grant if she pulls off what she's working on."

"Oh." Jimmy began rummaging through the pile of papers, sorting them into separate stacks as he did so. After several minutes of organizing the piles he then began quickly examining the contents of each page, picking up one sheet, glancing at it, and then moving to the next.

Kim sighed as Jimmy seemed to skim the material. "I know. Trying to actually read the stuff on those pages is impossible."

Jimmy shrugged. "I _am_ reading them."

This set Kim back. "You are? You really do understand them?"

Jimmy nodded but didn't say anything. As he continued to study the data his expression changed, first from scientific curiosity to concern, then from concern to worry, and finally from worry to undisguised dread. By the time he put down the last page Kim, who had been closely watching him, was filled with apprehension as well. Jimmy looked up at her.

"Bad?" asked Kim.

Jimmy nodded. "To say the least. What was Wade messing with when all this –" Jimmy paused to gesture at the piles of paper. "- happened?"

"He was trying to stabilize something called a temporal complosion device that was malfunctioning. Just as we managed to shut it off there was some kind of energy discharge and since then no one has seen Wade."

"A temporal complosion device," Jimmy repeated absently. "Interesting. Yes, that would fit." He looked at Kim. "This is trouble, Kim. Big trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" she asked.

"Well…" Jimmy tried to figure out the simplest way to explain it. "You know what a black hole is?"

"Of course," she replied. "Dad's a rocket scientist, remember? Black holes are kind of a family specialty. But this would make sense to him if all this information was about a black hole." She looked closely at Jimmy. "It's not a black hole, is it?"

"No," Jimmy answered. "It's not a black hole. I kind of wish it were." He seemed to be searching for the right words to say before continuing. "It's a whole lot worse."

"What could be worse than a black hole?" Kim wasn't sure she really wanted to know the answer, but felt that she had to ask anyway.

Jimmy's words didn't mean much to Kim, but they still somehow filled her with an ominous sense of foreboding. "Wade's been trapped in a temporal singularity."

End of Chapter 1


	3. Chapter 2 One Moment in Time

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 2:

"A temporal singularity," Kim repeated slowly, as though testing to see whether the phrase was to her liking. "Now, suppose for a minute I had no idea what that meant…"

"You're probably confused because there are a couple different meanings," Jimmy replied. "To some it means an instant in time which is common to all possible existences. That's more properly termed an existential nexus. But since such an entity would imply that every possible eventuality would need to converge to the same event with absolute certainty and hence contradict both free will and quantum theory, it doesn't really matter what it's called."

Kim raised one eyebrow. "Right," she said.

Jimmy continued with his explanation. "What I'm referring to is something else. Since you know about black holes, you know what a spatial singularity is, right?"

"That's matter that's infinitely dense, right?" Kim answered.

Jimmy nodded. "Right. In essence the object has collapsed on itself so that it occupies a single point in space. A temporal singularity is similar, except that an object has collapsed so that it occupies a single instant in time."

Kim shook her head at this. "Say again?"

Jimmy thought for a moment while he considered how best to explain the idea. "Okay, imagine the film for a movie. It's really just a series of still photographs, but when we watch film it looks like things are moving because each frame is slightly different from the next."

"With you so far."

"Existence is like that. Every instant of reality is like a frame in a film. Each instant is slightly different from the next. When you throw a ball, each instant the ball is slightly further away from you as you and it pass through sequential slices of reality."

Kim thought about that and nodded. "Okay, I think I see what you're getting at."

"Good. With Wade, that's no longer the case. Every moment of his existence has been collapsed into a single instant of time. If reality were a movie, it would be as though every instant of Wade's existence had been put into a single frame of the film."

"But how could that happen?" Kim asked. "I mean, what would do that?"

Jimmy shrugged and picked up several of the pages he had studied. "According to this, a time-travel device malfunctioned." He reviewed the pages again and shook his head. "An extremely dangerous time-travel device."

"Obviously," Kim commented. "But isn't all time travel dangerous? You know, what with changing the past and destroying the future…that sort of thing?"

"There is that aspect of it," Jimmy admitted. "But there are a couple ways to achieve time travel. This is a lot more dangerous than the way I usually do it."

Despite her previous experience with Jimmy Kim found this hard to accept. "Wait a minute. You've actually traveled through time?"

Jimmy felt suddenly embarrassed and hoped Kim hadn't thought he was bragging. "Well, yes. There's my time booth…and my time pincher…and my quantum replay device. But they don't work the same way as whatever did this to Wade. You see, there are a couple ways to get through time."

Although Kim wasn't much of a techno-geek she had nevertheless become interested in the subject. "I'd think that one would be plenty," she commented wryly. "So, what are the ways?"

"Pretty much the same as getting through space," Jimmy answered matter-of-factly. "Getting from now to then is a lot in principle like getting from here to there. One way – the way I use – is to take a shortcut."

"A shortcut," Kim repeated. "Through _time_?"

"Absolutely," Jimmy insisted. "Suppose you had some string that was kind of tangled up. That's a lot like the way time is, sequential but not very straight. One way to get from one end of the string to the other is to follow the entire length of the string. That's what we normally do. Another way is to jump from one place on the string to another and skip going along the whole length. The hard part is finding the right dimension in time that will give you the correction direction to take you from where – I mean, when – you are to when you want to be."

"Wait a minute," Kim objected. "The right dimension in time? I thought time was a dimension. You know, the fourth dimension and all that."

"It's convenient to think of time as a dimension of space. but it's actually an entity of its own, just like space. The two are interconnected, like magnetism and electricity, but just like space time has an infinite number of dimensions of its own. That's what lets you step outside the normal dimensions of time to travel through it."

"Kind of like a space warp."

"Uh…yeah." Jimmy wondered if Kim actually knew more about the subject than she was letting on, but decided to press on with his discourse. "That's how my devices work. Another way is to squeeze the points in time closer together, like an accordion. In plain terms, rather than taking an elevator from one floor to another, you compress the building, causing an implosion that brings the floors closer together."

"Compress and implosion," Kim said thoughtfully. "The temporal complosion device…that's what it means!"

"Apparently," Jimmy agreed grimly. "The danger is that massive amounts of energy are involved and you're tampering with the fabric of reality itself. Not good."

"So not good," muttered Kim.

"But it gets worse." Kim cocked a questioning eyebrow at Jimmy and he took a deep breath. "You know what happens with black holes?"

"Yes," replied Kim. "The gravity is so strong that nothing can escape it. Things too near it get sucked in and never get out again. Not even light."

"Yes. And just like the gravity of a spatial singularity pulls things through space towards it, the temporal singularity will be pulling things through time towards it. It's already putting incredible stress on time. If it isn't fixed, and soon, all of time will complode."

"What happens then?"

Jimmy shrugged helplessly. "Don't know exactly. Never been there."

"Okay, then let's just assume that it won't be a fun date." Kim smacked her fist into her palm. "So how do we stop it?"

"Well, first we have to know where in time the singularity exists. It could be in the past or the future – anywhen Wade existed in the timestream." Jimmy began to pace back and forth. "If I had a clue I could scan the timestream for anachronisms and zero in on the singularity that way."

Kim looked thoughtful. "What kind of clue?"

"Well…" Jimmy paused in his pacing to consider it. "Something that doesn't belong here. As the singularity pulls things through time towards it they would have to pass through our own time. If the singularity was in the past we'd see things from the future on their way towards it. If it was in the future we'd see things from the past. It would only be for a moment or two before they were dragged out of our time frame," he admitted, "so we'd have to be on the alert for them."

"Hmm…" Kim murmured. "I wonder…"

"Wonder what?"

"Well," she said, "when I was dropping in I saw an old-style biplane flying by. The pilot look kind of surprised, but I thought it was because he wasn't used to seeing someone my age skydiving." She gave Jimmy an embarrassed but thoroughly charming smile. "I tend to get that a lot."

Jimmy nodded, trying not to think of how attractive Kim looked. "An old-time plane. That's a possibility. Although there are people who like to collect and operate them, kind of like antique cars. But for now I'd say it's too much of a coincidence to ignore."

"So then what?"

"Well, if we can pin-point the instant of the singularity I can use my time booth to get us there." At the word "us" Kim frowned, but Jimmy was too lost in thought to notice. "If we get there in time we can reverse the singularity with the temporal complosion device. It's designed to expand time as well as compress it."

"Uh…" Kim looked flustered. "About that…"

Jimmy didn't like the sound of that. "What?" he asked.

"The comploder. I don't have it anymore." Kim frowned. "Sorry."

Jimmy stared helplessly at her. "What happened to it?"

Kim sighed. "Professor Dementor stole it from some top-secret research lab and I had to return it once I recovered it. I didn't think I'd actually need it, and I don't know that it would have helped anyway. It was pretty badly damaged by the fall that got Wade sucked into that singularity."

Jimmy began pacing again. "This is bad. Without a temporal complosion device I can't think of any way to get reverse the singularity and get Wade back again."

"Can't you build one?"

Jimmy gave his head a vigorous shake. "Absolutely not," he said vehemently. "It would take too long to test and would be way too dangerous to use without testing. It could make things even worse than they are now." He looked hopeful. "You have a lot of connections. Do you know of anyone who might have access to one?"

"No," replied Kim unhappily. "Wade usually had all the inside information on that sort of stuff. I didn't keep tabs on that myself." After a few moments of thinking her face brightened. "But I think I know someone who does."

"You do? Who?"

Kim smiled. "An old friend of ours who just loves to take those kind of things. Dr. Drakken."

It was long shot, but Jimmy had to admit he had no better ideas. "All right. When do we start?"

"Well…actually…" Kim fumbled. She steeled herself and managed to get the words out. "It'll just be me."

"What?" Jimmy couldn't believe his ears. "You're really going to see Drakken alone?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Kim replied as she began repacking her backpack. "I'll be okay."

"Drakken is dangerous," Jimmy insisted. "Not to mention Shego. You can't go alone." He stepped towards her. "I'll come with you," he said. "Maybe I'm not much good in a fight but at least –"

"No!" Kim snapped, so savagely that Jimmy involuntarily took a step back, looking both startled and somewhat frightened at this change in Kim's nature. She fought to compose herself and continued more calmly. "Thanks, but no. I can handle myself." She shouldered her backpack and headed towards the exit. "Thanks, Jimmy. I owe you one."

As she neared the door Jimmy activated his wrist-comp. "Okay, maybe you don't want me along," he said as he began pressing buttons. "But I can at least call Ron and have him –"

Kim's reaction surprised him. Before he could move she had back-flipped and landed next to him, grabbing his wrist and preventing him from completing the call in the same motion. "No!" she nearly shouted. "I don't want him helping me. You can't tell him what I'm doing or that I was here. Promise me you won't!"

Jimmy stared back at her, trying to read through the clouds covering her normally clear green eyes. "What?" was all he could say.

"Promise me," she pleaded. "If you're really my friend, promise me you won't say anything to him."

It was difficult for Jimmy to resist anyone who needed his help, and nearly impossible for anyone to deny Kim anything. But something was clearly not right and he knew, or somehow sensed, that agreeing would not be helping her. "Kim," he said at last, "what's wrong?"

Despite all that was at stake and the urgency of her mission, Kim released Jimmy's wrist and slumped numbly to the floor and sat there without speaking. Jimmy sat down next to her, also silent but watching her closely. For long moments Kim stared straight ahead as though oblivious to her surroundings or the boy at her side as Jimmy waited in patient silence. At last Kim said softly, "It's Ron."

"Ron?" Jimmy thought on that. "Is there something wrong? Did something happen to him?"

Kim shook her head. "Not yet."

"But you think that something will?" Jimmy pressed gently. Kim nodded wordlessly. "What? What will happen?" A chilling thought occurred to him. "Does it have anything to do with the temporal complosion device? Something about the future?"

"No," Kim said in a voice that was almost a whisper. "It doesn't. It has to do with me." She looked at Jimmy and once again he couldn't help but be fascinated by the warm depths of her large eyes. He struggled to focus on what Kim was saying, knowing that she was paying a high price with each word that she told him. "It has to do with…us."

"Us?" Jimmy repeated, startled, and then caught on to her meaning. "Oh. You and Ron."

"Yes." She looked down and bit her lower lip as she struggled to go on. "We were friends for, like, ever. Since pre-school. He was the first friend I met and he was always my best friend. Then, recently, things changed."

Jimmy fought to remain silent, afraid that his words would drive Kim into silence, but failed. "Something happened between you two?"

"Something major," she replied. She sighed again as she thought back. "It all started about a month ago…at the prom…"

End of Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

As some readers have no doubt surmised, this story does take place after "The Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama". One of my motivations for writing this story was to pay a last (?) tribute to the series, as the run of original Kim Possible episodes are now officially at an end and to offer my own ideas of what happened with Ron and Kim. I won't give away the contents of the next chapter, but I will say that it won't be as tragic or horrendous as what some readers might envision, so don't panic.


	4. Chapter 3 Answers and Questions

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 3:

"Drakken had hatched another plan to take over the world," Kim explained, "and this time he nearly got away with it. We'd gone up against each other so many times that he'd finally figured out how to play me and keep me from figuring out his plan until it was too late. If it hadn't been for Ron and Rufus his scheme would have worked. They were there for me when I really needed someone."

"Actually, that sounds like a good thing," observed Jimmy.

"It was," Kim agreed. "But more than that, I found out that Ron had…feelings for me. And it was then that I realized that he was really the person I'd been looking for all along. He was brave and loyal, and I knew that he was someone I had always been able to count on. He would always be the person I could trust." Kim thought back, recalling the exact moment it had happened. "And I realized then that I had the same feelings for him that he had for me."

Jimmy had known from the first that his infatuation with Kim could never really be anything more, but Kim's words were like a cold hand squeezing his chest, making it difficult to breathe. Fighting back against the constriction he managed to get out, "So you two…you're an item now?"

The tight sound of Jimmy's voice alerted Kim and she looked at him closely. "Are you all right with that?"

"Yes. Fine," Jimmy lied, trying not to hyperventilate. "It's just kind of a surprise, is all."

Kim momentarily forgot her personal troubles as she dealt with Jimmy's distress. "Not so much," she replied, taking Jimmy's hand in hers. "I guess I just couldn't see it. But I could at least see this. It was sweet."

"You knew?" Jimmy gasped, astonished. "You knew about…about…"

Kim smiled. "Women always know about something like this. It's just that they don't always let people know that they know. Thanks for not making it an issue. I mean, you're really great and all, but you're a little young and it's like…I dunno…we're from two different networks or something. It's like you're from some kids' network…"

"…and you're from some family channel. I know." Jimmy sighed as Kim released his hand. "But this isn't about me. What about you and Ron? It sounds like that should be a good thing, too. For…you," he added.

"What? Oh, yes." Kim grew somber again as she continued. "We went back to the prom and we…well, we sort of made it official. And like you said, that was a good thing. For a while. But then, Ron began to act different."

Jimmy was immediately concerned. "How? He wouldn't…I mean, he didn't…you know…hurt you or try getting you to do something you didn't want to do, did he?"

"What? Oh, no. No. Nothing like that." Kim frowned. "But it was almost as bad. He started closing in, somehow. It was almost like being with my father. He'd insist on taking me home after dark after a date. And during the day he'd want to call up and make sure I made it home all right. And he didn't like me going places alone. That kind of thing."

"Well, I can understand that." He thought about it. "It actually sounds kind of chivalrous, in an old-fashioned kind of way. I mean, a guy wants to make sure that someone they care a lot about is okay. They want to feel like they're needed."

"So my mom said. But I'm the girl who can do anything, right? I can take care of myself. Even so, I guess I could have put up with that or straightened him out or had him tone it down a bit or something. But then, about a week ago, I got a call from Wade on the Kim-municator."

"An assignment?"

"A rescue mission. It seems Ron had found out from Wade that Lord Monkeyfist was planning to heist some mystical simian artifacts from the British Museum. Ron hates Monkeyfist and usually avoids him like the plague if he can help it. But when he found out that Duff Killigan was in on it as well he decided on his own that that the two of them were too dangerous for me to handle. So he made Wade promise not to say anything and went off to face them alone."

Jimmy looked thoughtful. "That must have been a first."

Kim shook her head. "Not really. Ron did it once before so that Christmas with my family wouldn't be ruined. That turned into a rescue as well, but actually it was a spanking family get-together. The tweebs have been bugging my parents about it ever since and even Nana participated." She frowned. "This mission was a disaster. Wade contacted me when Ron hadn't gotten back to him after 24 hours and I figured out what must have happened. Ron had been exposed to some mystical monkey power and Monkeyfist no doubt took him captive to somehow use Ron's power with the artifacts. I didn't have any trouble tracking them down and had just freed Ron when Killigan, Monkeyfist, and a horde of monkey ninjas were on top of us."

"Sounds pretty intense," Jimmy commented, intrigued by Kim's story.

"Untold. I took on Killigan and Monkeyfist – they aren't very good at cooperative team fighting – and Ron was left with the monkey ninjas. Things seemed to be under control when…it happened." Kim looked troubled. "Ron was so worried about me that he let the ninja monkeys get the drop on him. He didn't even say anything when things turned against him. I wasn't even aware that he was in trouble until I had finished off Killigan and Monkeyfist took off with his multitude of monkey minions."

"Was Ron all right?"

"Mostly bruises. But it could have been much worse." Kim got to her feet and moved about restlessly. "It was never like this before. Ron always knew I could handle myself and he took care of himself. When he got into trouble he'd ask for help." She stopped and clenched her fists in frustration. "This isn't some kind of game. I can't be worrying about someone because they're worrying about me. This is real. The danger is real. And I can't have anyone with me on these missions if their head isn't totally in it."

Jimmy thought he understood. "So you grounded him?"

Kim nodded, looking almost ashamed. "I had Wade take him out of the loop and haven't told him about any of assignments I've taken since that day. I even swore my parents and the tweebs to secrecy on this. They all understand that it's because I don't want Ron getting hurt. But I'm not sure Ron would understand that."

"So what's the solution?" Jimmy asked.

Kim's face was a study in misery. "I don't know. I'm not sure. But it looks like I'm going to have to decide whether it's going to be Kim and Ron…or just Kim Possible." She took a deep breath and drew herself up. "So now you know. I have to do this alone."

"Maybe without Ron," Jimmy objected. "But I'm not Ron."

"Jimmy," Kim said gently. "I told you I know how you feel…"

"And I told you I understood," Jimmy replied. "Ron probably had feelings for you for years before he told you, but he put those aside because he understood that you needed someone you could count on. Well, this is no different. I didn't feel any differently when we took on Drakken and Calamitous and you could count on me then. Why not now?"

Kim stood there silently, pulled by opposing forces. On one hand, her recent experience with Ron filled her with real concern about another being hurt because of her, and if that happened she knew that she would never be able to forgive herself. On the other hand, she knew that facing Drakken and Shego alone could be dangerous and having a capable companion with her would be the prudent course of action. On a more personal level, it was true that she wanted someone with her, someone that she could count on. The boy in front of her was much younger than her, but he had proved to her that he was someone on whom she could. She made her decision.

"All right," she conceded. "I guess it would make sense to have someone along. Just promise me –" She gave Jimmy a long, hard look. "-that you'll watch out for yourself and not be worrying about something happening to me. Promise?"

Jimmy solemnly crossed his heart and raised his right hand. "Promise. You'll just be one of the guys. Although…"

Kim looked puzzled. "Although what?"

Jimmy hesitated, his face reddening. "It would be a lot easier to do that if you wore something baggier and a little less revealing."

"Baggier than cargo pants? No such thing." She gave her head a casual toss that flipped her long hair back over her shoulder. "Besides, I don't want people _totally_ thinking of me as just one of the guys."

One of the people not thinking of Kim as just one of the guys at that moment was Ron Stoppable in Middleton. At the moment he was lying in bed in his pajamas with his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling. From time to time his eyes would flick to the phone on the nightstand next to his bed. After a brief time he would grunt and then return to his study of the ceiling. His ever-present pet naked mole rat and companion, Rufus, waited next to the phone with growing impatience. Finally, when Ron next glanced at the phone, Rufus put his forepaws on his stomach in a pantomime of ravenous hunger and hopefully chirped, "Nacos?"

Ron shook his head. "Sorry, buddy," he replied. "But no Bueno Nacho today. Kim might be there."

Rufus dropped in a disappointed heap on the nightstand and Ron picked him up, rubbing his head sympathetically.

"I know," he soothed. "I'd love a grande-size chimirito platter right now, too. But she was way cranked about the mess-up the other day. She sounded like she really didn't want me around her."

He sighed at the memory. It was not often that Kim's enemies teamed up, and Ron had hoped to take them off-guard one at a time. Unfortunately Duff Killigan had managed to ambush him by surprise inside the museum while he was confronting Lord Monkeyfist and his monkey followers. He had been even more surprised when Monkeyfist had insisted that Duff Killigan bring Ron along after the two had overpowered the boy, rather than just leave him tied up or unconscious somewhere. Only later did he learn that the entire situation had been a trap set by Monkeyfist to use Ron's absorbed mystical monkey power to energize the artifact Monkeyfist had stolen. That had been bad enough, but when Kim had arrived later to set him free he had again failed, forcing Kim to let the evil monkey master to escape while she helped him.

"What is your problem, Ron?" she had demanded when the last monkey ninja had fled. "What were you thinking?"

"I was just trying to help," was all he had been able to say.

Realizing that he had been injured in the battle Kim had let the matter rest, but had insisted that he go home, rest up, and get better. When Ron had protested this she had assured him that things were quiet and that she would contact him when she needed him for her next assignment after he was better. That had been almost a week ago, and Ron had heard nothing from her or Wade apart from incidental contact when Kim delivered his school assignments. Ron had tried calling Wade, only to be assured that nothing was going down and also told him to get well. Now Ron was becoming restless and impatient.

"This is so not right, Rufus," he complained. "I saw Kim every day and nearly every evening before we started dating. I kind of figured that I'd be seeing more of her now, not less."

Rufus helpfully held out the phone receiver to Ron, hoping that he would call for a take-out order for lunch, but Ron looked doubtful.

"I don't know," he said. "Calling her up about this doesn't seem quite right. If she wanted to talk with me, she would have called."

Rufus rolled over on his back, rubbing his stomach again and whimpering in hunger, and Ron nodded.

"Maybe you're right, Rufus. Maybe something happened to her while I've been recuperating. I should call and find out." Rufus looked puzzled at Ron's interpretation of his performance but handed the receiver over anyway, content that Ron was at least taking some action that might eventually lead to lunch. Ron pressed the speed-dial for the Possible residence and waited impatiently through several rings before someone answered.

"Hello?" a young voice said.

"Hi. Ron calling," Ron replied. "Is this Jim or Tim?"

"It's Tim," the speaker at the other end replied.

Another voice came on the line. "Is so not," the new voice, virtually identical to the first voice, declared. "I'm Tim. He's Jim."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Guys, guys," Ron interrupted. "This is the phone. Twins impersonating each other on the phone so does not work."

"He's right," one voice said.

"What's up?" the other asked.

"I was just calling to see if Kim was there."

"Kim? No, sorry. She's not here. She had to leave early this morning to see somebody."

This news startled Ron. "She ditched school? Who did she have to see?"

"Some guy. Don't know who," one of the voices said.

A terrible fear crept over Ron. "Some…_guy_?" he repeated. He swallowed hard. "Does she know him?"

"I guess so. She said she couldn't wait to see him again."

_This can't be_, Ron thought in a panic. _She's ditching me because I messed up?_ There was only one faint hope left. "Did she say whether it was a mission?"

There was a brief pause as the twins on the other end had a hasty and whispered conference. "No," one of the twins said. "Kim hasn't been on any missions. She or Wade would have told you if something came up."

Ron's heart turned to water at the announcement. _It's personal_, was all he could think. _I've lost her_. He became aware of both of the twins calling on the other end of the line.

"Hello?" one said.

"Are you still there?" asked the other.

"Still here," Ron replied weakly. "Thanks for the information. It was…informative."

"There's more," one of the twins said.

Ron nodded numbly. "That's good. I think that there's still one small fragment of my heart still beating. Fire away."

"What?"

"Go ahead," Ron rephrased.

"Oh. She was going to someplace called Retroville, if that means anything," one twin said. "That's about all I know."

"Me, too," added the other twin.

"Thanks, guys," Ron added dully. "I appreciate it. See you around. Hey, wait a minute!" he said suddenly. "Why aren't you two in school?"

"Uh…gotta go," one voice said.

"Boo-shaw," agreed the other.

Ron heard the other end go dead and hung up his receiver, his mind whirling. Kim had gone to Retroville? The only people that he knew she knew were there were a couple grade school kids they had met a while back. From what the twins had told him, it sounded as though she was going to see Jimmy Neutron. But why? She wasn't on an assignment. Could she actually be dumping him for a sixth-grader? Bonnie Rockwaller would have a field day if she ever found that out and it turned out to be true. But was it true? What was going on? He looked at Rufus, who was staring sympathetically at him.

"Rufus," he said, "we're going to Retroville."

"How?" Rufus squeaked.

"I'll get us there," Ron replied in a determined voice. "Kim and Wade aren't the only people with contacts. Ron Stoppable can handle these kind of things, too, you know." He picked up the phone again and punched a series of buttons. "Hello?" he said in an uncharacteristically authoritative voice. "This is Ron Stoppable. That's right, Ron Stoppable. I have a Priority One emergency and need to be in Retroville fast, I mean like yesterday. What do you have to get me there? Uh-huh. I see. Well, just how much are those tickets, ma'am? I see. Well, does that include a meal and a movie or what? Uh-huh. Go on…"

End of Chapter 3

Author's Notes:

From time to time I do sequels of my own stories, of which this is one. For those curious about the first (at least in my stories) meeting between Jimmy, Cindy, Kim, and Ron I refer them to "Mission: Possible".


	5. Chapter 4 The Drakken's Lair

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 4:

Kim was used to traveling in all sorts of air, sea, and land craft but Jimmy's hovercraft was a novel experience for her. Jimmy could have taken the Strato XL, but as he was not certain about the terrain they would encounter or in which they would need to land he had opted for the more versatile, albeit slower, vehicle. At the moment Kim was piloting the craft and, despite the urgency of their mission, thoroughly enjoying herself.

"Okay, I am officially and retroactively changing that wish I made when I was 9," she said. "Instead of a pony, I want one of these." The hovercraft sliced upward through the air as she pulled back on the controls to gain more altitude. "Hey, look!" she called out, pointing down below. "That looks like an old steam locomotive. I didn't they had any of those running on this line anymore."

Jimmy looked to see and shook his head. "They don't. It has to be the temporal singularity pulling it in from the past. Wade and the singularity must definitely be in the future sometime. We have to hurry."

"Gotcha. Kim nudged the accelerator, coaxing a little more speed from the craft. "Can I ask you a question?"

Jimmy looked up again from the tracking device that he was monitoring intently. "Sure."

"Well, most of this craft seems pretty state-of-the-art," she commented.

"Thanks."

Her voice became puzzled. "So, why is the steering wheel made from a coffee can and the headlamp from a flashlight and a piece of duct tape?"

"Actually, it's called control yoke, not a steering wheel," Jimmy corrected her. "It controls ascent and descent as well as turn direction. But that's a good question." He smiled at the memory. "Dad wanted to help out when I was building it, and…well…"

Kim nodded, completely understanding. "Say no more. Been there myself with my mom a few times." She glanced over at Jimmy's tracking device. "How are we doing?"

"I figure we're about 5 minutes away," Jimmy replied. "Just keep your current heading and speed."

"You're sure this will take us to Drakken?"

Jimmy's smile changed into a determined grin. "Trust me."

As the hovercraft sped towards its destination Doctor Drakken was impatiently pacing the floor, muttering to himself. As he did so he occasionally glanced over at his henchwoman, Shego, as she channel-surfed, or at least attempted to do so. Thus far she had succeeded in finding one very faint and grainy channel among the hundreds of other static-ridden channels she had reviewed on the big screen monitor. Finally convinced that the one channel was the best and only one she could get she sat back, frowning. "Are you sure you got this thing hooked up right?"

"It's deplorable, Shego," was all Drakken said.

"Got that right." She leaned forward, squinting. "Are those people or sock puppets?"

"To think that once again we've been forced to relocate because of the infernal meddlings of that…that…" He struggled to find the right words. "…overachieving cheerleader-turned-heroine teenager Kim Possible in my fool-proof plan."

"There isn't even any sound," Shego complained. "Did you forget to pay the bill or something?"

Drakken glared at Shego. "I don't think that you've heard I word I've said."

Shego scoffed. "I just said there's no sound. I've heard every word you've said. You were whining about being a loser."

"That's not what I said."

"Oh. Sorry. I may have oversimplified." Shego cleared her throat. "I meant to say that you were bemoaning the capricious whims of cruel fate that have once again let you bereft of the rich rewards you feel you have so richly warranted."

Drakken raised a warning finger as he worked through what his assistant had just said. "Umm….yes."

"Well, like I said then," Shego said, returning her attention back to the television. "You were whining about being a loser."

Drakken clenched his fists in rage, gritting his teeth and snarling. With a great effort he mastered himself and walked towards one side of the room with slow, measured steps. In a clear, calm voice he said, "Shego, may I see you in my office for a moment, please?"

Shego sighed, rose from her chair, and crossed to where Drakken was standing. "Reporting as ordered, Doc."

Her employer carefully fitted the tips of his fingers together. "I have noted, Shego," he went on in the calm voice, "a certain - shall we say - lackadaisical and somewhat cavalier attitude on your part."

Shego rolled her green eyes. "Shall we say, depressingly fatalistic?"

Drakken grunted and gritted his teeth for nearly a minute before he could adopt a friendly smile again. "Ah," he finally said. "So you are aware of it. That's good. The book says that many times an employee perpetuates counterproductive qualities simply because he or she is unaware of them. Getting errant employees to recognize that these undesirable qualities exist is often the major obstacle in eliminating them."

"Eliminating the qualities, or the employees?"

Drakken ignored the jibe and began to pace, his head down and his hands behind his back. "I like to think of us as more than just a professional team, Shego," he said in an empathetic tone. "We're a family of sorts. Your pain is my pain and I want to help so we can once again function as the well-oiled machine of old. Is there some personal problem of which I am unaware? Some hidden crisis with which I can assist you?"

Shego cocked an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"What in blazes is wrong with you?" Drakken shouted angrily, unable to control himself any longer. "You act like the world fell apart and the pieces just crushed your last carton of Häagen-Dazs."

"Oh. That." Shego shrugged easily. "You know, you're a lot easier to understand when you don't try to get all touchy-feely like that. Let me enumerate for you what's bugging me." She began ticking off her fingers. "First, this is the fourth time in almost as many months that we've been forced to move because of that teen heroine Kim Possible. Second, your last plan to take over the world with Diablos was the most brilliant I've ever seen you come up with…and she still kicked our butts. And third, the doomsayers were right." She pointed at the television. "There are over six hundered channels and absolutely nothing to watch!" She squinted at the blurry screen. "Except something about fish…I think."

"Then let me enumerate, Shego," Drakken said defensively, counting off his own fingers. "First, I'll figure out how to get that stupid cable hook-up to work. Second, Kim Possible knows that only dumb luck saved her the last time and the Bueno Nacho corporate lawyers got us both off on legal technicalities like I knew they would, so I still consider that plan a moral victory. And third, this is our last relocation, because there is no chance…_no chance_…that Kim Possible will find us this time."

Drakken had hardly finished speaking when there was a loud explosion and the heavy door to the chamber burst open. When the dust and smoke had cleared he and Shego saw a familiar slim figure standing in the ruined entryway. "Knock, knock," she said.

"You were saying?" Shego observed dryly.

"Kim Possible?" Drakken spluttered. "This can't happening!"

"Oh, but it can, and it is," a smaller form at Kim's side answered. Jimmy returned the sonic impactor, with which he had blasted the door open, to the holster at his side and walked into the room studying the contents.

Shego's frown grew wider. "Oh, great," she muttered, putting a hand over her eyes. "Him again."

Kim strode into the room towards Drakken. "I'm looking for a temporal complosion device," she said grimly. "And I think you know where I can find one."

Despite being unnerved by Kim's unexpected arrival Drakken folded his arms in a gesture of defiance. "Sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about," he told her. "And since we aren't wanted by the officials anymore, I'll thank you to leave."

"Yeah," Shego shot out. "And you can take your little friend…" She looked about suspiciously and realized that Jimmy had disappeared. "Where did he go?"

Kim grabbed Drakken by the front of his lab coat and dragged him forward. "I'm not kidding, Drakken," she warned him. "You're going to tell me what I want to know."

Drakken let out a small squeak. "Shego," he called out feebly, "I think I need some help here."

Shego, however was looking for Jimmy and spotted his legs poking out from inside the wiring cabinet for the video system. "There you are!" she cried. "Get out of there! If you ruin the one channel we have, so help me I'll…"

"What a mess," she heard Jimmy's muffled voice say. "Haven't you people heard of impedance matching?"

"I mean it, Poindexter," Shego snarled. "Get out of there now, or –" She broke off in awe as the fuzzy gray picture on the screen suddenly snapped into crystal, multicolored clarity and sound began to pour from the audio system. "This thing gets color?" she asked in hushed tones. "And Dolby 5.1 surround-sound?"

"Remember, Drakken," Kim went on in a menacing tone, "I'm the girl who can do anything." She dragged Drakken closer so that they were nose-to-nose. "_And will_."

"Shego!" Drakken called frantically. "Protect!"

"Yeah, yeah, in a minute," Shego called back. She grabbed the remote control and began flipping through the channels, squealing in delight with each new channel that appeared. "Do we get premium channels on this?"

"It should," Jimmy called out. "Got a bobby pin?"

Shego looked blank. "A what?"

Jimmy's hand.emerged from inside the cabinet. "Or a small paper clip. And a gum wrapper."

"Gum wrapper. Right," Shego said excitedly, scrambling to a desk and rifling through drawers.

"Well, Drakken?" Kim asked softly in her sweetest voice.

Drakken swallowed hard. "I don't have one," he protested. "The last I heard Dementor had gotten hold of one." He suddenly sulked. "He always gets the best stuff."

Kim shook her head. "Sorry. That one's gone back in the shop for repairs. I need one that works. And knowing you, I'm positive that you've got a line on one."

Shego handed the requested components to Jimmy and watched as the straightened the clip, coiled it around the shaft of a small screwdriver, and then wrapped the gum wrapper around the coil. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Setting up a small parallel LC circuit," he replied. "The coiled paper clip will form the inductor and the multiple alternating layers of paper and foil of the gum wrapper will act as the capacitor. This should provide the necessary compensating Q for premium channel filtering, but you may want to get a real filter from Smarty Mart." He attached the makeshift component into the wiring and crawled back out, dusting his hands. "Try it now. Something above Channel 150."

Shego entered a channel and pumped her arm in triumph as the image of a wrestling ring appeared and an announcer intoned, "…coming to you live from the Middleton Sports Arena. The long-awaited no-hold, steel cage, winner-take-all grudge match between Pain King, Steel Toe, the Lumberjack, and Man-Woman…"

"Well," Drakken said, "I do know of one place that's doing research on those types of things. But the security is pretty formidable. I've never been able to crack it."

Kim's voice was ice. "Where?"

"The Advanced Physics Institute in Upperton," Drakken replied. "But you'd never be able to get in."

"That's my problem," Kim replied coolly. "But thanks. And I'll let the cable company know that you're pirating your TV hook-up."

Drakken made strangling noises. "You're not serious!" he protested.

"What?" Shego echoed, looking over at them. "You're jacking cable?"

"Hey, everyone does it," Drakken shot back at Shego. "If the cable company doesn't want me watching, keep can keep their signal off the junction box to my coax connection. It's a victimless crime, anyway." Noting Kim's angry look he added hastily, "But I'll disconnect it."

Shego got up and stalked angrily over to Drakken. "Over your dead body," she snarled.

"Please, Shego," Drakken pleaded. "This isn't the NSA or CIA or FBI we're talking about here. It's a utility company!" He wrung his hands. "They'll skin me alive!"

Kim turned to go, "Well, your problem now," she said. "Ready, Jimmy?"

"Ready," he replieda s he joined her.

"Wait!" Drakken said. "Let's make a deal. I'll give you everything we know about the institute's security measures if you don't let the cable company know about my…arrangements here." As Kim hesitated he added, "And I won't press charges about the door."

Kim looked troubled as she thought about it. As much as she hated the thought of turning a blind eye to Drakken's illegal activities Jimmy had said they needed to hurry, and knowing the details of the security system might come in handy if they had to attempt a break-in. "Deal," she sighed.

"Done!" Drakken agreed hastily. He hurried over to a cabinet and rummaged through piles of paper. At length he found the folder he was seeking and brought it over to Kim. "Here it is. Everything Shego and I have learned about the institute's security measures."

Kim accepted the folder and carefully studied the title "Upperton Advanced Physics Institute Surveillance Report" on the cover before opening it. Inside was a single sheet of paper which she removed and read aloud. "'The doors are locked.'" She glared at Drakken. "That's it?" she demanded.

"You…cheat!" Jimmy snapped angrily.

"Hey, there'd be more in there if some crusading teenager wasn't always interfering with my plans," Drakken returned just as hotly. "But a deal's a deal."

With a growl of disgust Kim turned and stomped from the room with Jimmy following close behind her and fuming. When they were gone Drakken let out a sinister chortle, distracting Shego from the wrestling match that she had resumed watching. "What's that all about?" Shego asked. "Finally got the best of Possible, did we?"

"Oh, yes," Drakken replied, still chuckling evilly. "In more ways than one."

End of Chapter 4


	6. Chapter 5 Friends and Strangers

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 5:

Official airline schedules will show that a trip by commercial airliner from Middleton to Retroville takes approximately 5 hours, but this typically applies to those who can afford the luxury of traveling in the passenger sections and enjoying the pleasantries of flight attendants, snacks, and beverages. For those forced to settle for the less pretentious accommodations used to transport pets and other live cargo the trip can and does seem much longer. So it was that Ron Stoppable and Rufus arrived in Retroville reasonably whole but suffering from jet lag, stiff joints, and hunger pangs. Ron was especially annoyed about the last.

"I mean, it's not like I didn't pay," he complained, as he collected his luggage. "Okay, so I wasn't in the passenger compartment. But how much would a couple lousy bags of peanuts cost the airline? Especially ones that aren't even honey roasted? Would that really have dented their financial report for this year?"

Rufus gave him a non-committal shrug and grunt.

"Yeah, sure, you can say that," Ron continued to grouse. "But at least you had something to eat. Don't think I didn't see you swiping some of that hamster's pellets."

Rufus stuck his tongue out, giving a good impression of someone who has had a horrible meal.

"Still better than nothing." Ron sighed and looked around the terminal. "All right, the last time we were here we all went to someplace called the Candy Bar. I guess that would be the best place to start looking for someone who knows something about Kim and Jimmy."

The naked mole rat perked up at the mention of the Candy Bar. "Yummy!" he chirped.

Ron shook his head. "Dial it down, Rufus. We have just enough money to split a naco and get a flight back home. Whatever we eat here isn't going to be fancy." His lower lip trembled at the memory of the last trip. "It…it might not even be a naco."

Rufus' shoulders slumped at the gloomy announcement and he hung his head. Then he looked up hopefully and pantomimed dialing a phone. Ron frowned.

"Uh-uh, no way," he said firmly. "I am not calling Wade to have him wangle one of Kim's favors for us. We'll get by on our own somehow. If this thing with Kim doesn't work out…well, maybe it'll be good practice for us."

With that Ron hefted his baggage and set off with Rufus perched on his shoulder. Fortunately for both of them the streets of Retroville were laid out with almost geometric precision so that navigation was a simple task. Ron had gotten a good deal of exercise from his exploits with Kim, and the five mile hike from the airport to the Candy Bar was not a serious physical challenge, even toting the excessive luggage he always brought when travelling. Even so it was a warm walk and he was parched by the time he arrived at the sweet shop. He shambled up to the counter and dropped the luggage with a thud. As always, Sam was working behind the counter and eyed Ron curiously. He knew most of the young people in the area by sight and didn't recognize Ron as a regular, but knew that business was business. "What can I get for you?"

Ron counted the change in his pocket as best he could as he surveyed the products. "What's the cheapest thing you have here?" he asked.

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm guessing that would be you, Mr. Out-of-Towner."

The snipe stung and Ron grew angry. "Hey, just because I'm from out of town doesn't mean I'm loaded!" he shot back. "And for your information not every high school student has parents who can give them a new computer every year and a cell phone that will actually fit in your pocket and fancy designer school clothes and all the Le Goop hair gel that they need for unruly cowlicks!"

Customers in the Candy Bar were turning to stare and Sam, flustered by the unexpected outburst, tried to calm Ron down. "Hey, take it easy. I didn't mean anything. Let me get you a nice Purple Flurp on the house, yeah."

"I don't want your charity!" Ron snapped. "I don't need anyone to take care of me! I –"

"Ron Stoppable?" a voice at his side broke in.

Ron turned to see Cindy standing there. "Cindy Vortex?"

"I want to talk to you!" they both said together.

"Jinx!" Ron cried. "Ha! You owe me a soda!"

Cindy blinked. "Excuse me?"

"When two people say the same thing at the same time the first person to say 'Jinx' gets a soda from the other person," Ron explained. "Or the other person can't say anything until someone says their name. In Middleton we usually go for the soda."

"In Retroville we usually act sane," Cindy replied. "What kind of dumb kid's game is that?"

Ron lowered his voice. "Please, play along," he begged. "I'm dying of thirst here."

Deciding that that it might make getting some answers easier, Cindy sighed and raised two fingers, silently instructing Sam to fix sodas for her and Ron. After she paid for the drinks the two and Rufus headed for a booth for a talk. Ron put an extra straw in his drink for the naked mole rat and Rufus began greedily guzzling the fizzy concoction through his.

"All right," Cindy said. "Spill."

Rufus looked puzzled at this, shrugged, and tried to upend the drink. Ron gathered him into one hand before he succeeded. "Dude, she didn't mean that literally." Ron looked quizzically at Cindy. "Did you?"

Cindy looked disgusted. "No. I want some answers from you."

"Fire away," Ron replied between sips.

"Why was Kim here?"

Ron's face lit up and he leaned forward. "So Kim is here! I knew it!"

"I don't know about _is_. She _was_, yesterday. But why?" Cindy pressed.

Ron shrugged. "Don't know."

"What does she want with Neutron?"

Ron looked troubled at that but shook his head. "Don't know."

"Why didn't she bring you with her?"

The troubled expression changed to one of sadness. "Don't know," Ron admitted.

Cindy gave up and looked annoyed. "You don't know much, do you?"

"That's why I'm here," Ron returned, just as annoyed. "Mind if I ask you a few questions of my own?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay. What's Jimmy up to with Kim?"

"Don't know," Cindy admitted.

"How long have they been seeing each other?"

"Don't -" Cindy broke off and stared at Ron. "What?"

As Cindy continued to stare at him, dumbfounded, Ron's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I'll ask the questions, thank you very much. How long have they been seeing each other? Answer me!"

"Have you taken one too many in the head from Shego or something? What kind of question is that? Why would Kim be seeing Jimmy? And if she was, why would I know about it?"

Ron seemed to relax a bit at that. "You mean, you haven't suspected anything? Until now?"

"Why would I suspect anything?" Cindy protested.

"Well…I kind of thought…you know…that you and Jimmy were an item. And if he were seeing someone else…well…"

Cindy recoiled in horror at the thought of what Ron was saying. "Eww! No!" she objected. "Me and Neutron? You have got to be kidding! I wouldn't be an item with Neutron if he were the last person in this space-time continuum. If I were about to be sucked into a black hole, and dating Neutron was my only hope of escaping it, I'd rather disappear forever. If –"

Ron's face was a study in skepticism. "Oh, yes," he deadpanned. "I can tell that this is not a thought that has occupied your mind for hours on end."  
Cindy crossed her arms and fumed. "It's just a ridiculous idea, that's all," she snapped. She glared at Ron. "Why are you so tweaked about Kim seeing Neutron, anyway?"

Ron looked discomfited by that. "Because we are an item." He hung his head. "Or were. I don't know anymore."

"What? You and Kim are dating?"

"_Were_, I said." Ron sighed heavily. "I don't know what the sitch is now."

Cindy was dazed by this. When she had last see Kim, Kim had told Cindy that she had never had those kind of feelings for Ron except when Kim had tangled with something called a modulator. "Well, there must be a reason," Cindy said. "Girls like Kim don't dump guys for no reason." She thought about it and gave Ron a narrow look. "What did you do?" she demanded.

Ron was not and had never been a good liar. "Nothing. Everything was cool," he fudged. "I don't know."

"What?" she repeated.

As Ron hemmed and hawed Rufus finished the last of the soda and belched contentedly. "Monkeyfist," he squeaked.

"Monkeyfist?" Cindy repeated. "What's that?"

Forced into a corner by Rufus' admission, Ron caved. "Monkeyfist is one of Kim's enemies and my personal arch-foe. A little while ago I learned that he was up to something with another bad guy named Duff Killigan. I thought I could take them out and went mission mode without Kim." He grimaced at the painful memory.

"The mission went bad?"

Rufus nodded vigorously as Ron said, "Way bad. Kim had to launch a rescue mission to get me. Worse, Monkeyfist got away because of me."

Cindy didn't sound very sympathetic. "Well, why didn't you tell Kim when you went off on your own? Was she grounded, or have a big test to cram for, or something?"

Ron shook his head. "No. I didn't want her along. I wanted to do it myself. And because I messed up, I think Kim has given up on me. I mean, why would she want to hook up with a loser?" Cindy's head hit the table with an audible thump and she covered her head with her arms. "Hey, don't take it so hard," Ron told Cindy, with obviously forced optimism. "We'll still be tight as friends." His voice lost some of the false confidence. "Maybe."

"It's not that," Cindy said without lifting her head. "It's just that I suddenly realized that guys are going to be oblivious idiots through high school."

"Is that all?" Ron sounded surprised and sought to reassure Cindy. "Don't worry about that. According to my mom, it goes on way past high school."

"So not helping, Ron," came Cindy's muffled voice.

"No?" Ron looked puzzled. "So what exactly are we talking about here?"

Cindy's head re-emerged and she glared at Ron. Despite the situation she felt compelled to set him straight. "You really don't know?"

"No. What are you talking about?"

Cindy let out a snort of disgusted exasperation. "Don't you get it? Kim was perfectly happy with things as they were. And then you pull one of these macho things to try and impress her. What were you thinking?"

"Hey, it wasn't like that!" Ron protested angrily.

"No?"

"No! I wasn't trying to impress her! I wasn't trying to be macho!" Ron half-rose from his seat. "I just wanted to show her that I could take care of myself! That I wasn't just a loser!" Now that the truth was out Ron dropped limply back onto the bench and went on in a much quieter voice. "Yeah, sure, Kim and I started dating. But it took her more than ten years and one very messy break-up for her to want that. All that time I was there by her side and it was always someone else she was crushing on. Someone who wasn't a loser. I's like she never even saw me. Is she really perfectly happy with things as they are? If she wasn't interested in me as a loser yesterday, why should she be interested tomorrow?"

Cindy was actually touched by Ron's words. "Did she ever call you a loser?"

"No," Ron admitted. "But a lot of other people have. And if someone says something long enough and loud enough anyone will start to believe it. Like the time I wanted to be the Middleton Mad Dog mascot. Even though everyone else on the cheer team was against it I thought for sure that Kim would back me up on it. But she didn't. It was only later that she stood up to the others. And at Cheer Camp that time at Lake Wannaweep when I was sure that Gil – or Gill – was up to something and no one believed me. Not even Kim." He looked sad. "Despite all our bravado and stoicism, we guys still need some reassurance sometimes." He looked startled. "I never realized that before."

"That guys need reassurance sometime?"

"No, that I knew what 'bravado' and 'stoicism' meant." He shook his head. "The point is that sometimes when I need Kim to be there, it takes her a while to stand up for me. How solid is she on this more-than-friends thing?"

"Well, has she ever backed down when she does?" asked Cindy.

Ron considered it. "No. Not yet, anyway."

Ron lapsed into an unhappy silence and Cindy thought over what he had said for some time before finally speaking. "Okay, Ron," she said, "I don't have all the answers. Maybe you don't even want answers from me. I mean, a lot of times when girls tell guys their problems they don't want someone to solve it for them. They just want someone to listen and know that there's someone who'll always be there for them. But whatever Kim was doing in Retroville, I'm sure it wasn't to dump you, even for – I mean, especially for Neutron. That means something's up. Something big."

"How big?" Ron wanted to know.

"I'm not sure. The last time Kim and Neutron teamed up it was save-the-world big and it was pure luck that they got together. But if Kim went out of her way to involve Neutron, I'd bet it's even bigger. A whole lot bigger." She looked thoughtful. "I don't know exactly what, but I'm pretty sure I could figure out…in time…"

End of Chapter 5

Author's Notes:

At least one reader has asked a very good question concerning how the singularity was affecting things. I'm glad to know that people are actually thinking about what's going on in these stories because I do try to be consistent and put in enough of a solid foundation to make these stories believable, both in terms of plot and characterization. It's good to know the effort is not going to waste. Unfortunately that means delaying some things because of the time it takes to lay the necessary groundwork and the need to introduce some story elements at the right time. The next chapter will address some of what the singularity is doing and hopefully answer questions some people have.


	7. Chapter 6 Night Moves

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter7:

It was almost midnight as Jimmy brought the hovercraft into a final approach towards the Advanced Physics Institute in Upperton. Since leaving Drakken's lair he and Kim had been preparing for this mission, and even now were silently reviewing last minute details and considering responses to possible contingencies. The extreme urgency of their mission had not given them much time to formulate a plan and gather the necessary equipment, and they both knew that any one of a thousands things might go wrong. Jimmy, who was not used to such clandestine activities, was far more nervous than Kim but did his best to hide it. He knew that her part in the plan was far harder than his and didn't want to unnerve her.

"I'm sorry you didn't get much time to practice with some of that equipment," he apologized. "It took me longer than I thought to get some of them put together."

Kim waved it off easily. "Hey, no big. I'm actually pretty impressed that you were able to put these things together as fast as you did."

"Most of them aren't really much," Jimmy replied. "They're just to get you in. It's the scanning decrypter that's the main thing."

Kim held up the analyzer and studied it thoughtfully. It looked much like a portable CD player, which was not surprising as that had once been its original purpose. "The scanning decrypter," she repeated. "I just hope that it works."

"It should if the Institute's vault security works the way I think it does. Based on what we were able to dig up on the place I'm betting that their security system is using a continuous pseudo-random data stream with an embedded rotating distributed key and redundant pattern match."

"In English?"

"A continuous data stream is a way for the security system to ensure that the circuit hasn't been cut. The pseudo-random pattern keeps someone from faking a data stream to pretend the circuit hasn't been cut. The embedded key is the part of the data stream that checks patterns used to open the lock. Distributing and rotating the key makes it harder to pick it out from the random data patterns. And redundant pattern matching means a match has to be made several times, and at just the right times, for the lock to open."

"Oka-a-ay," Kim said as she pocketed the device. "Not really English, but close enough. This thing will figure out the correct code to open the lock?"

Jimmy nodded and looked gravely at Kim. "But don't forget. The system will detect the hack and sound the alarm thirty seconds after the decrypter cuts in, whether it's isolated the code or not."

"Thirty seconds. Got it." She suddenly leaned over and pulled on the control wheel, hard. The hovercraft heeled over, nearly standing on its side from the drastic course correction. Jimmy caught a glimpse of a silvery shape as it flashed past them, missing them by scant feet. Kim relaxed her grip on the wheel and let out a sigh of relief as the hovercraft leveled off and gained altitude again. "You okay?" she asked.

"Think so. I didn't think any aircraft would be flying this low over a populated area." Jimmy looked back, but the other vehicle had vanished.

"Aircraft? I don't think so. It was a car."

Jimmy refused to believe that. "What would a car be doing up here?" he demanded.

"We probably drifted a lot closer to the ground than you thought without realizing it," Kim answered. "I mean, you are cruising without lights. But it was definitely a car. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a DeLorean."

"That's ridiculous. They haven't made those in more than twenty years and they made less than 10,000 of them. The odds of seeing one are pretty small." Jimmy thought about it. "But if it was a DeLorean," he continued slowly, "then it might have been pulled out of the past because of the singularity."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that," said Kim. "Why is it that things further in time from the singularity are pulled past us? If the singularity is in the future and we're closer in time to it, why isn't it pulling us in more strongly?"

"We're closer in sequential time," Jimmy explained. "Remember the tangled string model. There are points in time that are closer to the singularity than we are but are actually further in sequential time in the past. My guess is that the singularity can't pull them completely out of normal space-time - yet - and so we're experiencing them as the singularity accelerates them past us through sequential time. Pretty soon we'll be seeing more than just isolated objects. We'll being seeing entire slices of the past."

Kim thought about that. "And why are we seeing just isolated objects now?"

"All I can think is that somehow they must not be anchored as firmly in the time stream. It's almost as if…" His voice trailed away and he shook his head.

"What?" Kim asked at last.

Jimmy was reluctant to voice the idea to Kim. "It's probably the stupidest idea you've ever heard. I was about to say that we may be seeing the things we've been seeing because they were traveling outside of normal space-time." He shook his head again. "But who in their right mind would be using a biplane or a steam locomotive or a Delorean for time travel?"

"You got me," was all Kim could say. After a brief pause she pointed ahead of them. "That must be the Institute."

"Right. Let me get over it." Jimmy coaxed the craft higher and hovered silently as he donned a headset and Kim slipped one of Jimmy's inventions over her eyes. "Remember to stay in touch by radio. Testing…one…two…three…"

Kim touched the tiny receiver in her ear and nodded. "Alpha…bravo…charlie…" she murmured quietly in reply.

"Loud and clear," Jimmy announced. "It looks like your transceiver is functioning perfectly. The Omnispecs 2000 should be enough to guide you through the ducting and help you avoid any sensors. If you aren't sure which setting to use, call in. And don't be afraid to use that personal protection equipment. Remember, the effects are non-lethal."

"Roger." Kim slipped over the side. "Wish me luck," she whispered as she descended like a flying squirrel towards the dark roof below. The analogy was actually quite appropriate, for billowing folds of fabric arched outwards between the ankles and wrists of her stealth suit, causing her to float more than fall through the air. About ten feet above the rooftop she drew her arms to her side and flipped forward to land lightly on her feet. "I'm down."

"Good," Jimmy answered back. "Let me know if anything comes up."

Kim adjusted the controls of the Omnispecs and carefully scanned her surroundings. While her stealth suit made her all but invisible in the darkness the enhanced vision capabilities of the Omnispecs allowed her to see things as though it was twilight rather than midnight. Satisfied that there were no cameras or other surveillance equipment within range she proceeded to a duct of the building's ventilation system, pried off the grill, and disappeared inside. Once inside she switched the Omnispecs from ultraviolet to infrared, alert for any indications of sensor beams blocking her way as she inched along.

"How's it going, Blue Fox?" a voice whispered in her ear.

"So far, so good, Mauve Duck" she answered in a voice she could barely hear. "No signs of infrared detectors. No sounds of anyone around either. Must only be the security guards here tonight."

"Copy."

With infinite patience Kim made her way through the ventilation duct. Despite the terrible urgency of their mission she knew that any mistake would surely end the mission, and that undue haste was unacceptable. After she had traveled perhaps fifty yards she switched the Omnispecs to the x-ray region and looked about her, trying to get her bearings. The ambient radiation was not great but the amplification of the device allowed her to see several dozen feet in all directions, which was enough to identify the various rooms by and over which she passed. After fifteen minutes of agonizingly slow progress she spotted a dark shadow off to her left.

"Blue Fox to Mauve Duck," she whispered. "I see something…whatever it is x-rays can't pass through it very well."

"That may be vault," she heard Jimmy reply. "But it might also be just a storage cabinet for radioactive materials. Switch to the low end of the EM spectrum. Does it look like there's any electrical power going to it?"

Kim complied and studied the false-color image. "Looks like," she replied quietly, "but it's hard to be sure. The power cables may be shielded and this ventilator shaft might be blocking some of it as well."

Jimmy sighed. "Copy that. I guess it's a good first target to check out. Let me know what you find."

"Roger." Kim crept silently through the ducts, looking for a side shaft that would bring her closer to the unknown object. After a few minutes of crawling she found one and made her way to a grill that opened onto a hallway near the possible vault. After a quick search through several regions of the electromagnetic spectrum she decided that the hallway was empty, slowly pushed the grill open, and dropped silently to the floor. An x-ray scan showed the dark shape to be on the other side of a locked door. After some examination she whispered softly, "Mauve Duck, this is Blue Fox."

"Go ahead, Blue Fox."

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I'm probably in the right place. The sign on the door reads 'Advanced Projects Research – Authorized Personnel Only'."

"Sounds like the right place," Jimmy agreed. "What's the bad news?"

"The door is at least three inches of solid steel and locked, and as near as I can tell from x-ray scans it's been wired. I'm pretty sure it's alarmed and I don't think I can get into the room any other way without making a lot of racket."

"I expected something like this," Jimmy answered. "You know that spray can I gave you?"

Kim removed the canister from a pouch on her belt and regarded it curiously. "You mean this defensive anti-personnel spray you gave me?"

"Yes. I want you to spray the center of the door with it. Use the entire can." As Kim complied Jimmy explained, "This is a quick freeze spray that would have frozen anyone coming at you for a few minutes. The entire can should drop the temperature of the exposed portion of the door down to a few hundred degrees below zero."

"And super-cooled metal becomes very brittle," Kim concluded as she emptied the last of the can. Replacing the empty container, she braced herself and drove her gloved fist forward with all her strength into the now rime-covered door, striking the spot she had sprayed. There was a delicate sound like glass shattering and Kim looked on with satisfaction at the roughly circular two-foot hole left in the door by her punch. "Good thing I've always watched my figure," she commented quietly. "It would be a tight fit otherwise."

"Wait a few moments before going in," Jimmy cautioned. "The edges will probably be a little cold."

Kim waited for what felt to her like hours, looking about her as she waited to make sure no one was coming to investigate and cautiously touching the edges of the hole from time to time to estimate its temperature. When she was satisfied that the temperature was no longer a threat she slipped through the opening and into the room beyond. Inside the room she noted with satisfaction that there was indeed a vault like that Jimmy had described earlier and moved to affix Jimmy's decryptor. "I'm at the vault door," she murmured. "It looks like the hard part is over."

"Careful," Jimmy cautioned. "Remember, we need to get out of here as well. That'll be the tough part."

Kim nodded somberly at the reminder. Then she took a deep breath, activated the decryptor, and attached it to the face of the imposing door. The decryptor clung to the door as its circuits began analyzing the data stream flowing through the locking mechanism. As the device worked purposefully Kim kept a silent mental count, mindful of what Jimmy had said about the thirty-second limit. The LCD screen of the device was recording the code sequence as fast as the decryptor extracted it, Kim knew, but in the darkened room even the Omnispecs couldn't give her a clear image of the display. Jimmy had been almost certain the device would complete its task in less than thirty seconds, but not being able to verify that made the thirty seconds speed by with terrifying swiftness for Kim. _Twenty-nine…thirty_, she thought as the count came to an end. _I hope Jimmy knew what he's doing_. She popped the decryptor from the vault, returned it to one of the many zippered pouches on her outfit, and turned to the door just as a loud alarm began to blare. After spending such a long time in near silence the sudden noise startled Kim and momentarily froze her in her tracks. Then she sped into action, diving in one graceful leap through the hole in the door and rolling to her feet in the corridor beyond.

"Status, Blue Fox," she heard Jimmy say in her earpiece.

"The hounds are out," Kim replied, raising her voice to be heard above the din.

"Copy that. Head for the rendezvous point."

Bright lights came on in the corridor as Kim headed towards the ventilator grill from which she had emerged earlier and she whipped the Omnispecs off her head, stuffing them into her belt. The lights were not for her benefit, she knew. They were for the security guards who would be there any moment to investigate the cause of the alarm. As this crossed her mind she spotted the first of them just ahead of her, rounding the corridor into the hall she was in. Spotting her, he pulled a sidearm from a holster and pointed it at her. "Halt!" he ordered.

"Sorry, got other plans," she called as she vaulted towards the ventilator opening. It was an unfavorable maneuver, as it brought her closer to the guard, and as her fingers gripped the edge the guard fired at close range. She felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and for a second she was shocked that he had actually fired at her. The next second her entire side went numb as a powerful electric charge coursed through her. Unable to maintain her hold on the edge of the opening she dropped, collapsing to her knees as she landed.

As she fought her way back to her feet to confront her first assailant who was bearing down on her she heard others coming up behind her. "Freeze!" she heard someone call as she whirled about, delivering a roundhouse kick into the first guard's midsection. With her body still numb from the effects of the shock there wasn't much behind the attack. The guard grunted from the force of the impact but did not go down. As her opponent circled her Kim felt another sharp pain as another shot struck her in her back. Her attempts to brace herself for what she knew would follow were futile. She stiffened for a moment as the charge struck her, swayed uncertainly for a second or two, and then fell forward into the waiting arms of one of the guards, unconscious.

Kim wasn't sure how long she was out, but when she came to herself she was lying on a gurney outside the building with Institute's security guards conversing quietly among themselves. A man who was lounging nearby and not in uniform noticed that she had regained consciousness and came up to her. "What's going on?" was all she could say.

"I'd like to know the same thing," the man replied.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Amberson, the director of the institute. And you are…?"

Kim struggled to sit up and discovered she was strapped down. After a few seconds of useless effort she dropped back, exhausted. "Please," she pleaded. "You don't understand."

"No," Dr. Amberson replied pleasantly. "But I'd like to. Who are you, and what were you doing here?" He gestured at the assortment of equipment Kim had been carrying. "What are these, and where did you get them? I really would like to know before the authorities arrive. They're most fascinating and your cooperation might help you."

Kim's answer was cut off by a large whirring sound. She twisted her head in time to see a dark helicopter descend from the sky and land on the large expanse of lawn in front of the institute. A grim figure in a dark trenchcoat emerged and strode purposefully towards her and the institute director.

"Dr. Amberson?" he said.

"Yes."

The new arrival flashed a badge and identification card. "My name is Smith," he said curtly. "I'm from the Agency." He nodded towards Kim. "Is this the intruder?"

"Yes," Dr. Amberson replied and looked curiously at Smith. "Do I know you? You look familiar." Kim thought to herself that he appeared familiar to her as well.

"If I do, I've failed in my job," Smith replied. "The Agency prefers total anonymity. We never met before, and never will again. Do you know why she's here?"

"No. I was just asking her." He gave Smith another close look. "You certainly got here faster than I expected."

"That's not surprising. She's here for the temporal complosion device." The agent almost smiled at the institute director's look of astonishment. "We suspected that something like this might happen after Dr. Dementor stole the other device. We've been keeping a close eye on this place ever since then."

Dr. Amberson finally found his voice. "That's preposterous," he objected. "There's no way she could have gotten it."

"Really?" Smith crossed over to the pile of devices and picked up the decryptor. After glancing over it he showed it to Dr. Amberson. "Is this the code for the vault?"

Dr. Amberson put on a pair of eyeglasses to scrutinize the tiny LCD screen Smith was indicating and looked amazed. "Yes. I didn't notice before, but yes." He removed the glasses and looked at Smith quizzically.

Smith nodded in satisfaction. "Just so."

Dr. Amberson sighed in relief. "But fortunately we stopped her before she could get what she wanted.."

"No. You didn't."

The pronouncement shocked Amberson. "What?"

"She got exactly what she wanted. The code. And just the code."

"But…but why?" Dr. Amberson stammered.

Smith looked grim. "There's only one reason. To give it to someone here so that they could get the device later at their own convenience."

"My gosh!" Amberson shook his head. "That's incredible. Are you sure?"

"It's a possibility," Smith replied. "And that's enough to pose a security threat we can't ignore. I'm afraid this project is going to have to go black."

"How black?"

"Pitch. Until we can determine how seriously this project has been compromised I'm going to have to remove the device to an undisclosed location. Furthermore, anyone associated with this is not to reveal anything to anyone until informed otherwise." He nodded to Kim. "I'm afraid that includes her and her accomplice. I'll be taking them with the device to a secure holding area."

"Accomplice?" Amberson looked puzzled. "What accomplice?"

Smith stepped aside and gestured towards the helicopter. In the back seat Kim could see Jimmy sitting, his head down, not looking at her. "We've had our eye on this one. We suspect that this isn't his first time at something like this. We can't prove it, but we have reason to believe that he was directly involved in a number of incidents requiring official government investigation." Smith looked thoughtful. "Not really a bad kid. He's just a classic example of a loner with too few friends and not enough stimulation who's in it for the thrill of the hack. Maybe it's not too late to rehabilitate him, but that's not my call." He sighed and shook his head. "And now, if you can fetch the device, we'd better get it out of here with the rest of the evidence."

"Yes. Of course." Dr. Amberson, flanked by two security guards, went into the building. Shortly after they returned with Amberson toting a large carrying case. Smith opened the case to inspect the contents, grunted, and closed it again as the guards unstrapped Kim.

"Very good, Doctor. We should be in touch with you in a few days. Until then, I was never here. Neither was this –" He hefted the case slightly. "- or them or their equipment." He gestured to Kim and Jimmy.

"If you'll just let me explain –" Kim began.

"Please, Miss," Smith interrupted. "You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you." He gave her a cool, level look. "I would strongly recommend that you exercise that right. It might make things easier on your parents."

Kim hung her head sadly and walked towards the waiting helicopter as Dr. Amberson watched them go. Only after they had entered the helicopter and the aircraft had disappeared into the darkness above that he realized that Smith had never told him the names of the suspects or even which agency he worked for. _Bureaucrats_, he thought.

High above the skies of Upperton the helicopter dissolved into the more familiar form of Jimmy's hovercraft. "Good work, Agent Smith," Jimmy complimented.

"Totally righteous," Smith replied, giving Jimmy a a crooked grin and "hang loose" sign. Jimmy flipped a switch and Smith faded into nothingness, just as the helicopter had.

"That totally rocked," Kim said, then winced. "Except for the tasers."

"Sorry about that," Jimmy replied. "I didn't foresee that part."

"No big. I'll just be a little stiff and slow for a while. And I guess it was better than having to fake losing a fight. Has this always had a cloaking device and solid photon holograms?"

Jimmy shrugged. "No, just for a while. When my space bus got wrecked I salvaged them and figured I might as well make use of them somehow. But the main thing is that we have the comploder." He noticed that Kim had suddenly stiffened. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Kim abruptly whirled about, her every instinct warning her of danger. She tried to leap to one side, but, just as she had told Jimmy, the effects of the tasers had still not completely worn off. Part of the blast of green energy struck her, sending her sprawling backwards. A lithe figure dropped into the hovercraft, seemingly from out of nowhere. As Kim was struggling to her feet another burst of emerald radiance caught her at point-blank range, sending her spinning into unconsciousness.

It was over so fast that Jimmy had no time to react. All he could think, as the green bolt that engulfed and overwhelmed him faded into black was, _Stupid! _ _Stupid_!_ STUPID!_

End of Chapter 7

Author's Notes:

Hopefully Jimmy's explanation about the effects of the singularity made sense. The objects they had seen – the biplane, the steam locomotive, and the DeLorean – were actually a double inside joke of sorts. One was a reference to a travel movie called "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". The other involved references to other movies involving time travel. One was a popular time travel trilogy that virtually everyone knows and which used both a DeLorean and steam locomotive for time travel. The biplane was in a more obscure Disney movie involving a time warp of sorts. I'm curious to see if anyone out there will be able to recall the name of the movie.


	8. Chapter 7 The Teeth of the Drakken

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 7:

Drakken was so notoriously predictable in his plots that Shego mentally divided them into three distinct phases. The first, which she called the "glee" phase, consisted of Drakken enthusiastically concocting some ridiculously complicated plan. The second, or "gloat", phase followed when, against all reason, his plan actually appeared to be succeeding. The final, or "gloom", phase inevitably followed when, again against all reason, Kim Possible and her buffoon of a sidekick succeeded in taking them - or rather, Drakken - down. Shego was always careful to exclude herself from the failures that always resulted from Drakken's plots, as they always seemed to follow from Drakken ignoring her advice.

At the moment Drakken was deep into his "gloat" phase. "Didn't I tell you, Shego?" he chortled, capering about the lab. "Just try to tell me that Dementor or Monkey Fist could have pulled this off any better."

"Yeah, yeah, great. You got hold of this temporal whatchamahooie like you wanted." Shego sighed and rolled her eyes. "Congratulations."

"Word that, Shegizzle," Drakken replied triumphantly.

Shego snarled in disgust. "Will you please stop that?"

"What? You don't think that I'm entitled to gloat?"

"Gloating I can take. You trying to come off like a 'gangsta', not so much."

Drakken drew himself up with great dignity. "But I deserve it. I finally one-upped that cheerleading pain in the gluteus maximus _and_ that know-it-all whiz kid. And you thought I didn't know what I was doing."

"Well, I do have to admit you had most of it figured out pretty well," Shego admitted. "But how did you know that they'd get the device out of the lab so we could ambush them?"

"Oh, come now, Shego. What's Kim Possible's favorite phrase? She can do anything, remember?" He chuckled sinisterly at this. "I knew that if anyone could get the temporal complosion device out of there, it would be her. Once she did that, taking it for ourselves was like taking candy from a baby."

"So much I figured out," Shego replied with a yawn. "But 'Miss I-can-do-anything' nearly didn't make it. If it hadn't been for that kid's last minute rescue she'd be in jail and your precious gizmo would still be locked up tight."

Drakken looked mildly surprised at this. "I'm disappointed in you, Shego. That was all part of their plan."

"What?" Shego shook her head and waved her hands. "Wait a minute. You're saying that they wanted Possible to get caught?"

"Not caught. Detained." Drakken sighed at Shego's dumbfounded stare. "Think about it. Suppose they snagged the device and got away clean. Then what?"

Shego shrugged but couldn't resist baiting Drakken. "The eggheads call their insurance company and file a claim?"

Drakken raised an eyebrow but refused to be drawn in. "I'll ignore that. What they do is contact the law enforcement agencies. Everyone and his brother is out searching for it, and it's only a question of time before Possible and her half-pint partner in crime are fingered and apprehended."

"Fingered by who?" Drakken gave her a smug look and Shego was taken aback. "Oh, you are kidding me. You would have snitched on them?"

"It depends on how much the reward was for," Drakken replied. "And as a wise philosopher once said, 'If you can't beat them, have someone else do it for you.' But since they got away it's a moot point. As it is, they get the device and absolutely no one looks for them because everyone thinks they've already been caught." Drakken allowed himself a brief moment of admiration. "It's absolutely brilliant! And the best part," he concluded, "is that no one will be after us, now that we have it, either."

"Okay, so we have the device." Shego leaned forward. "But what does it do? And why did they want it?"

Drakken shrugged. "I'll figure it out eventually. For now, Dementor wanted one, so that's good enough for me. And this one is much better than his."

"How so?"

"Because," Drakken grinned, "mine comes with a cup holder." He pressed a button several times, causing a small shelf to extend and retract several times.

Shego watched, unimpressed. "Ye-a-ah," she drawled. "Listen, you suppose that maybe that's a tray for a removable disk? Like maybe a CD or DVD player?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Shego," Drakken scoffed. "Why would anyone put an entertainment system in a top-secret temporal complosion device?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because it makes more sense than a cup holder?" Drakken just looked blank. "You realize that most software and data is stored on optical disks like CD and DVD now, don't you?"

"Uh…" Drakken fumbled for something to say. "I had heard a rumor to that effect. They actually do that now?"

"Only for the past dozen years or so. Kind of like the cable you just got has only been around for about thirty years."

Drakken absorbed that news. "Oh, I see. Basically a new and untried technology." He turned back to the temporal complosion device. "No matter. I'll figure out some way to make it work anyway."

Shego tossed herself on a recliner and reached for the TV remote. "What about our guests?"

"Our what?" Drakken muttered, absorbed in his study of the device before him.

"Guests. Possible and the buffoon's stand-in. What are you going to do about them?"

Drakken blinked. "Use them as guinea pigs, I suppose. I'm sure I'll need to run some tests with this thing before I try using it myself. Did you make them uncomfortable?"

"As much as possible. Whatever happened with your idea of installing a real torture chamber?"

"Too labor intensive. I prefer something more efficient that doesn't insist on time-and-a-half for overtime. You took away their toys before you locked them up?"

Shego nodded, faintly insulted by the question. "You think I'm some high school grad from a temp agency or something? Of course I did." She began flipping through channels. "There aren't going to be any repeats of last time w had them penned up." As she settled down to watch a televised martial arts competition she shook her head, feeling a twinge of regret. _Pity_, she thought. _That Neutron kid might have come in useful around here. I wonder if he knows anything about satellite television hook-ups?_

In another section of Drakken's lair, Kim and Jimmy hung on opposite walls of a small cell from restraints securing their wrists and ankles. Both had been conscious for some time, but had said little other than to reassure themselves that the other was all right. Whereas Jimmy felt mostly anger at their situation, Kim seemed more depressed.

"I'm sorry, Jimmy," she finally said. "I should have reacted faster."

"It's not your fault. I was stupid not to realize that Drakken and Shego would have been laying for us."

"Hey, I'm the one who should have guessed what they'd try. I've gone up against both of them a lot more times than you have." She hung her head and her voice became bitter. "I should have realized that they knew they couldn't pull it off and that getting it from us was their best bet. I must really be slipping up. Maybe it's time for me to retire."

"Don't talk like that," Jimmy objected. "We've had setbacks before. When we get out of this -"

Kim couldn't hold the bitter words back. "What are you talking about, Jimmy? There is no way out of this. There's a temporal singularity that's going to wipe out everything unless we can stop it. Drakken has the temporal complosion device that we need to stop it. Wade is gone and can't help us. No one has any idea where we are, and we're locked up in a cell without anything to get us out of here."

"Even so –" Jimmy tried again.

"_Don't you get it?_" Kim had not intended to direct her fury at Jimmy, but she needed to vent the emotions she was feeling and he was the only person to do so. He voice shook from frustration and anger. "Are you too stupid to see that it's over? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius!" As soon as she said the words she regretted it. Jimmy simply stared at her, saying nothing, and his hurt silence stung more than any angry words he might have returned. She hung her head in shame and regret. "I'm sorry, Jimmy," she whispered hoarsely. "I didn't mean that."

Jimmy didn't answer right away. "I know that things don't look good, Kim," he said. "Logic tells me that there's no hope, too. But that's the point. Hope isn't based on logic. There have been times when I knew I had no chance of succeeding but something always told me to try anyway. For a long time I thought that it was just ego, or stubbornness, or that maybe Cindy was right about my always needing to win. But for some time now I've believed that there's something more to it than that."

"And what's that?"

"That the bad guys aren't supposed to win."

Puzzled, Kim said, "Well, no, I don't think that they should win either, but -"

Jimmy shook his head. "No. I don't mean that we don't think that it's right that they should win. I mean that they aren't _supposed_ to win. That there's something on our side that will give us the edge we need if we just don't give up. There's always been evil in this world, and after all this time it hasn't beaten us yet. I used to wonder about that, but I think I understand why now."

Kim had wondered about this at times as well, and had never come up with a satisfactory answer. "Why?"

"Because evil will always be alone," Jimmy replied. "It cares only about itself. When the chips are down and the odds are against it has no one to turn to. By looking only to itself it can only grow inward and never outward. It's the nature of evil to fail, because it's very nature dooms it to extinction. But the nature of good is to care about others. When things look hopeless there will always be someone there, because that's the nature of good."

"Always someone there," Kim repeated to herself. "Like Ron…"

"And Cindy…"

"And Wade…" She caught herself. "No. Not Wade. Not this time."

"I couldn't say. But I know that there are people out there who feel that we matter and have devoted themselves to that end. And I believe that will be what will save us this time. I can't say how…or where…or when…or ever prove it…but I believe it just the same."

Kim thought about it. Was it possible? _Anything is possible for a Possible_, she told herself. Her heart lifted somewhat at the memory of her father's familiar phrase. It was true there were people out there who cared about them. As long as that was true, perhaps there was still hope.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by a familiar sound and she listened intently. Had she really heard it? Or just imagined it? She looked at Jimmy, who was staring towards the entrance to the cell. Apparently he had heard something, but was it what she thought she had heard? A few seconds later she again heard the faint sound, and this time there was no mistake.

It was familiar four-tone chime of the Kim-municator. Someone was trying to call.

A chill went down Kim's spine. Only Wade would or could call the Kim-municator. It used a private scrambled satellite frequency that only Wade knew and used. Even the few times Ron had called her on the Kim-municator he had been patched through by Wade. But Wade was gone now. Wasn't he? And even if he wasn't, how could she or Jimmy get hold of him? The Kim-municator chimed once again, and then fell silent. Despite that, Kim felt hope returning.

Someone, somewhere, was looking for them.

At the Candy Bar in Retroville Ron and Cindy were preparing to leave when Ron's phone shrilled. He still had no clear idea what to do at this point, other than to return to Middleton and confront Kim's family, and he flipped the phone open indifferently. "Ron Stoppable here. Failed relationships a specialty."

"Ron?" a familiar voice asked.

"Wade? What's up?"

"Is Kim there with you?"

Ron shook his head. "No. I haven't really seen her in days. I was kind of hoping you'd know where she was. I have some things I need to discuss with her."

There was a brief pause before the voice replied. "That's not good. Listen carefully…"

For the next few minutes Ron listened silently, his jaw alternately dropping open and clenching shut as his expression changed from indifference to blank astonishment to bewilderment to worry to grim determination. Cindy watched this show with growing impatience, her interest piqued by Ron's silence. By the time Ron disconnected without a word she was literally hopping with curiosity.

"Well?" she demanded.

Ron pocketed the phone. "Kim's in trouble," was his terse reply.

"What? Where? How?"

"You left out when, why, and who," Ron pointed out. "I'm not sure. But I have to go."

"Then I'm coming, too," Cindy announced.

Ron looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. "What?"

"You heard me. If Kim's in trouble, then Neutron is too, and more than likely Neutron got her into the mess in the first place and I'm not going to just wait around to find out what that knothead did this time." She paused to catch her breath. "Why didn't Wade just tell you what the trouble was?"

"Two reasons," Ron answered as they headed for the door. "First, he didn't know what the trouble was."

"And second?"

Ron seemed to take an unusually long time to reply. "It wasn't Wade."

End of Chapter 7

Author's Notes:

Cliffhangers and plot twists. Gotta love 'em.


	9. Chapter 8 Doing the Kim Possible

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 8:

Cindy hurried to keep up with Ron, who was striding briskly back in the direction he had come. "Hold up a minute," she asked. "If it wasn't Wade you were talking to, who was it? It sounded like you thought it was him."

Ron nodded but didn't slow his pace. "I did. I was wrong."

"Then who was it? What's the big mystery?"

Ron thought about it while he walked, slowing down a bit as he did so. While as a rule he wasn't good at keeping secrets, this concerned Kim and he would rather lose an arm than do anything that might endanger her. On the other hand, Cindy had shown him during their last encounter that she was someone to be trusted. He looked at Rufus who was seated on his left shoulder. "Should I trust her? What do you think, Rufus?"

Rufus, who was just as clueless as Cindy but a good judge of character, gave Ron a thumb's up sign. "Uh-huh, uh-huh," he chirped.

Convinced, Ron set his luggage down and sat on one of the suitcases. "Okay. Here's the sitch. Wade is missing. I don't know how, or why, but he is. The person I spoke to wasn't Wade. It was…I dunno how to put it exactly…Cyber Wade."

Rather than making things clearer, this only succeeded in confusing Cindy more. "Huh?"

"Okay. Wade is like a total techno-junkie. He's on his computer all the time. Because of that, he programmed it to respond if he was ever away from it for more than twenty-four hours."

Cindy looked puzzled. _And I thought Neutron was a geek_, she thought. But all she said was, "Twenty-four hours? What about vacations and things?"

Ron shook his head. "You so don't know Wade. He like never, but never, even leaves his room – except virtually. If he's away from his computer for more than a day it's definitely a sign that something is very wrong."

"How wrong?" Cindy asked.

In reply Ron began counting off on his fingers. "Four horseman of the apocalypse wrong, sun coming up in the west wrong, Bueno Nacho canceling the naco wrong – well, you get the idea. So Wade programmed his system to respond in case something like that ever happened. And for something going that far south, the person he programmed it to contact was –"

"You?" Cindy didn't mean to sound dubious but it came through anyway.

"Well, no. Kim, actually. But here's where it gets even worse. Kim didn't answer the Kim-municator. And she always has it with her, even when she's at cheerleader practice." Ron began pacing and waving his arms. "And have you seen those outfits? I mean, where does she keep that thing? There aren't any pockets, and it's not like they're baggy enough to –"  
"Earth to Stoppable," Cindy called out.

Ron stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"You've gone from reasoning to rambling in less than six seconds. Care to resynch?"

"And how," Rufus agreed.

"What?" Ron looked puzzled and then nodded. "Oh, right. Anyway, the point is that she never goes anywhere without the Kim-municator and she would never willingly flake on a call like that. That put Cyber Wade in full 911 mode. And that's when he called me. He wants me to get back to Middleton for further instructions."

Cindy nodded, understanding at least part of it now. "Why Middleton? Why not just tell you what to do over the phone?"

"I'm not exactly sure. But from what I understood of the message Wade had some kind of top-secret ace-in-the-hole project prepared just in case he and Kim both went missing. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but I don't think he could have expected that I'd run into you. I think the real Wade would understand." He reached down and picked up his luggage again. "And now I have to get to the airport. There's a pet taxi with my name on it."

"Wait a minute." It was now Cindy's turn to think. If Jimmy was with Kim, and Kim really was in trouble, then it was almost certain that Jimmy was in dire straits as well. It was possible that she was crossing the line, but extreme circumstances required extreme measures. "Maybe I can help."

"You can?" Ron looked curiously at her. "How?"

"Remember the Strato XL?"

Ron nodded. "Yes. Did Jimmy say you could use it?"

Cindy looked embarrassed and hemmed and hawed a bit. "Well, not exactly," she fudged. "I mean, he did tell me to stay out of his lab, but he never specifically told me that I couldn't use the Strato if I really needed it and he didn't happen to be around at the time."

Ron seemed unimpressed. "Yea-a-ah," he finally responded. "You see, where I come from, we call that 'rationalizing'."

"Look, it's four hours to Middleton on a plane, not counting the time getting through the airport. The Strato could get us there in thirty minutes."

"Rationalizing," Ron repeated.

Cindy folded her arms defiantly. "Your girlfriend and Neutron are in serious trouble and I say this is the fastest way to help them. You got a problem with that?"

Ron thought about it and shook head. "Well, put that way, I guess not."

Rufus shook his head. "Rationalizing," he clucked.

It was not a particularly long walk from the Candy Bar to the clubhouse behind the Neutrons' house. As Ron watched in curiosity Cindy removed a small plastic case from her pocket and extracted what appeared to be several strands of hair, which she held in front of what Ron recognized as a scanner of some type. As they waited Ron heard a female (but clearly synthesized) voice say, "Analyzing" and saw a beam of light scan the follicles. "DNA match confirmed," the voice announced. "Welcome, Jimmy." The door to the clubhouse opened, permitting Cindy and Ron to enter.

"Do you do this often?" Ron asked while Cindy replaced the hair.

"No," Cindy replied evasively. "Why?"

"I was just wondering. It's an amazing coincidence that you had that hair with you. I mean, either you sneak into this place a lot…or…" He paused, giving Cindy an opening in which to respond.

"I do not sneak into this place a lot!" she objected vehemently. "It must be the other thing you were going to say."

"Well," Ron went on slowly, "the other thing I was going to say is that you must be pretty serious about Jimmy to carry a lock of his hair –"

"On second thought," Cindy interrupted with an unconvincing laugh, "maybe I do come in here more than I should. Yes, I guess 'a lot' could describe it. Yeah. Semantics. Always been a weak point of mine."

Ron and Rufus exchanged looks before Ron simply nodded. "Right."

With that Cindy and Ron dropped through the entry tube leading to Jimmy's lab and Ron looked about him with the same wonder that Kim had. As he stared, goggle-eyed, at the myriad gadgets and complex equipment Cindy headed to the Strato XL poised on its launching ramp. "Coming?" she called.

"This place is amazing," Ron called back. "I think that Wade might actually leave his room if he could just see this."

Cindy, who had seen the lab many times before, simply shrugged. "We're wasting time," she said, her voice edged with impatience. "Let's get moving." She climbed into the pilot's seat and began strapping herself in. Ron hurried over and took his place in the seat behind her.

"All set?" Cindy asked.

Ron buckled his seat belt. "Set."

"Okay, then." Cindy studied the controls, trying to remember the launch sequence that Wade had stepped her through some time back. "Okay. Atomic batteries to power." She snapped two switches in the center of the console up and was gratified to see twin power meters come to life. "Turbines to speed," she continued, pressing a button marked, "ENGINE START." A high-pitched whine grew in pitch as the needle on a meter labeled "TURBINE SPEED" swung to "NOMINA.L". The ramp elevated, pointing the rocket straight up, and Cindy gripped the joystick and thrust lever as she concentrated on the imminent launch. "Beginning countdown. Five…"

"Uh, Cindy?" Ron asked hesitantly.

"Not now, Ron. Four…"

"I really think -"

"Later. Three…"

"- that you should -"

"Quiet! Two…"

"- open the -"

"Will you please pipe down? One…"

"- launch door!"

"Blast off!" Cindy called, pulling down the thrust lever. The rocket surged forward up the ramp just as the meaning of Ron's words hit her. Unfortunately the rocket ship hit the closed door almost immediately after, shattering the barrier into splinters like a bullet through plate glass. Fortunately the nose and windscreen of the craft deflected the debris so that none of the fragments struck either Cindy or Ron, although their reflexes made them flinch a fraction of a second and several hundred feet in the air later. Cindy looked back at the ruined clubhouse roof and then at Ron. "If you say one word about women drivers…" she warned.

Ron shook his head. "Oh, no. No. Not me. Kim is actually a lot better driver than I am." In a somewhat quieter voice he added, "And technically you're a pilot right now, not a driver."

After the shaky start the flight to Middleton went smoothly. As Cindy had predicted the trip took somewhat less than half an hour with the engines wide open, including the time needed for Ron to orient himself and direct Cindy to his neighborhood. They made a safe, if slightly bumpy, landing in the Stoppable driveway and the two of them were just strong enough to carry the surprisingly light spacecraft into the garage.

"This really isn't necessary," Cindy grunted as she manhandled the rocket up the drive. "We could just activate the cloaking device."

"And have my dad hit it in the driveway with the car?" Ron gasped in reply. "I think not. Jimmy is going to be way cranked about his clubhouse as it is. And we may need this baby in one piece to get wherever Kim is."

Cindy had no good argument for that and together they managed to safely stow the Strato XL in the garage. As they lowered the garage door Ron paused and Cindy looked at him. "What?"

"I was just wondering. You'll remember to open this one before we take off again, won't you?"

Cindy gave him a vicious look. "Will you drop it already?"

"Okay, okay!" Ron protested. "Just remember that my dad won't be as understanding about his garage as Jimmy might be about his clubhouse."

Grumbling, Cindy followed Ron into the house and up to his room. She had been there only once before but it seemed much as she remembered it. The only obvious difference was a framed picture of Kim and Ron on the nightstand next to Ron's bed. She studied it as Ron activated the speakerphone and dialed.

Over the speaker Ron and Cindy could hear the connection being made. After several rings a voice answered, "Hello?"

"This is Ron Stoppable calling Wade."

"Wade isn't here right now," the voice replied.

"Then give me a message."

"Identify confirmed," the voice at the far end said. "Ron. You're in your room?"

"Affirmative."

"You're alone?"Ron looked at Cindy and shook his head, uncertain how to answer. The voice seemed to interpret his silence for it said. "Oh. Rufus is there, correct?"

"Yes," Ron answered truthfully, a note of relief in his voice. "I'm not alone. Rufus is here." For Cindy's benefit he put a finger in front of his lips.

_Duh_, Cindy thought impatiently.

"Understood.," the voice responded. "Listen carefully. Go to your closet."

"My closet?" Ron looked startled. "Why my closet?"

"Go to your closet."

Ron shrugged. "Okay. Going to the closet." He crossed to his closet and pulled open the door while Cindy watched in silence. "Now what?"

In answer the voice said, "There's a white box on the top shelf. Take it down and open it."

Puzzled, Ron did so. As with most closets there were a number of boxes of various sizes, shapes, and colors on the storage shelf. He could not recall having seen the white box he pulled down before, but it had not seemed out of place on the shelf. Laying the box on his bed he removed the top and stared at the contents, both curious and unimpressed. "A jogging suit?" he asked.

"No," the voice came back. "Not a jogging suit. An advanced tactical prototype I was working on for the government."

Ron's voice became suspicious. "_Our_ government?"

"Yes. Our government. Put it on."

"What were they planning to use it for?"

There was a pause and the voice said, "I'm sorry. I'm only a simulation and my programmed responses are rather limited. I'm afraid I can't respond to that question."

"Okay, fine. What does the suit do?"

"The suit is a battle suit, similar to Kim's battle suit and the Centurion prototype you may remember," the voice answered. "Its purpose is to provide a tactical advantage in combat situations by directly accessing attack and defense responses programmed into it. Activate the suit by pressing the button at the top of the zipper."

"Programmed attack and defense responses?" Ron muttered as he pressed the button. "Couldn't you have made it a little more stylish? Like maybe a tuxedo?"

The voice was silent for a moment before stating, "I'm sorry. I'm only a simulation and my programmed responses are rather limited. I'm afraid I can't respond to that question."

"Okay, fine. Who programmed it?"

"The suit was programmed by me, using the parameters obtained from an individual with superior speed, agility, and reflexes under actual combat situations."

"Obtained from who?" He paused, thinking. "Or is it 'whom'?"

"I'm sorry. I'm only a simulation and my programmed responses are rather limited. I'm afraid I can't respond to that question." The voice over the speaker suddenly hardened. "Commence drill!"

"Say what now?" Ron asked, confused.

While Ron stood there, bewildered, a half dozen small flying disks emerged from the box lying on the bed and began an aggressive attack. Without really understanding what he was doing, Ron back-flipped out of the way of the menacing objects, skillfully avoiding the numerous rays that lanced downward at him. Seizing a CD lying on his desk he spun it towards one of the disks, striking it off center and deflecting it into the path of another disk. The two disks collided and fell to the floor, inert, while the CD caromed in another direction and deactivated another of the hovering objects. Without stopping to think, or even realizing what was happening, Ron dove forward, sweeping his leg around and taking out the remaining three in a great semicircular arc before landing lightly on his feet again.

Cindy, who had witnessed the whole thing, stood with her mouth agape. It had taken less than two seconds to end the encounter. The moves were very familiar, but she could not believe that it had been Ron who had performed them. Ron was just as stunned as the voice went on, "The parameters were obtained from someone with whom you are quite familiar."

Ron managed to find his voice at last. "I think I've just gone Kim-mando."

End of Chapter 8


	10. Chapter 9 Dilemma

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 9:

Back in Drakken's lair Shego idly manicured her nails as she half-watched the previously advertised tag team wrestling match. She would have paid more attention but she had found that Drakken's frequent grunts, mutterings, and other noises were too distracting for her to enjoy the broadcast. On another level, she found his antics much more entertaining than the well-rehearsed choreography of professional wrestling. She had not bothered to make any comments up to now, but a particularly distressed yelp of anger and pain was too hard to ignore.

"Good news?" she deadpanned.

Drakken made a noise of disgust as he sucked a sore finger. "Stupid…disorganized…useless…" He straightened from his study of the temporal complosion device and shook the screwdriver in his hand in Shego's direction. "Tell me, Shego. What sort of person would go to all the trouble of stealing a top-secret device and not take the instruction manual?"

"I'm guessing someone smart enough to not need one."

"No one's smart enough to figure out how to work this without a manual," Drakken complained. "The schematics and blueprints alone are forty pages."

Shego couldn't resist needling Drakken further. "Professor Dementor thought he was."

"Dementor," Drakken spat, as though the name itself left a foul taste in his mouth. "More like Dumb-entor. I could think rings around that quack."

Shego paused, tapping her chin with the emery board. "Isn't a 'quack' someone pretending to be a medical doctor?"

"Hmm." Drakken thought about it. "'Shyster'?"

"That's an unscrupulous lawyer."

Drakken gave up. "Then what _do_ you call some incompetent boob who thinks he's a genius of a mad scientist?"

"Well," Shego drawled, pretending to think about it, "a name that comes to mind would be –"

Drakken suddenly realized how he had set himself up and glared at Shego. "Don't even go there, Shego," he warned. "Remember – payday is still a week off and I haven't signed your timesheet."

"Yeah, okay, whatever," Shego answered, resuming her manicure. "But if you want my opinion…" She became aware that Drakken was staring at her. "What?" she demanded.

"I was just wondering," Drakken said. "Why is it that you file your nails with your gloves on?" After a few seconds more thought he added, "Come to think of it, how _can_ you file your nails with your gloves on?"

Shego rolled her eyes. _A top-secret device to figure out and he's interested in my personal habits_, she thought in disgust. "I practice a lot," was all she said. "But back to the subject. If you want my opinion about how that thing works –"

Drakken waved his hands to cut her off. "Uh-uh-uh-uh," he interrupted. "I don't need your opinions on this. After all, who's the genius around here?"

Shego turned her back so that Drakken couldn't see her smirk. "Right now, I'm guessing the kid hanging in the other room."

Drakken grabbed up a portable multimeter lying on the work bench before him., which was the closest and heaviest thing he could find. Before he could throw it, however, Shego's words sank in. "What did you say?" he asked.

"Yeah, I know," Shego replied with a sigh. "Payday is still a week a away and you haven't signed my timesheet. I'm sorry, but if you keep giving me those straight lines…"

"No." Drakken shook his head. "No. I'm serious. What did you say?"

Puzzled, Shego replied, "I said that the genius around here is that Neutron kid hanging in the other room."

"That's it!" Drakken exclaimed. He rubbed his hands together in glee. "I don't need to know how to work this. We already had someone who knows how."

"You mean you think Neutron is going to give you lessons on how to use that thing?" Shego looked surprised but quickly shook her head. "No way. He'll never do it."

Drakken gave Shego the evil smile that Shego found herself so strangely attracted to at times. He activated the portable soldering iron he had been using and carefully studied the tip before pressing it into the surface of the wooden table. "Have faith, Shego," he said, as a thin stream of smoke rose from the smoldering wood. "He's a genius. I'm sure he'll see reason…sooner or later."

"And I'm guessing that we should try to make it sooner?" Shego asked as Drakken deactivated the soldering iron.

"Absolutely," Drakken agreed. "As the expression goes, let's strike while the iron…is hot."

Even without his watch Jimmy was able to gauge the passage of time fairly accurately. By his estimates he and Kim had been captives for approximately four-and-a-half hours when they heard footsteps approaching. Had they been imprisoned alone the time would have seemed interminable to them and taken a great toll on their spirits, but having each other to talk to had kept their spirits up. Both Kim and Jimmy glared defiantly at Drakken and Shego as they entered.

"Ready to give up?" Jimmy challenged.

Rather than becoming angry, as Jimmy had expected, Drakken simply smiled. "Ah, Jimmy Neutron, boy genius. How very good to know that your faculties are as sharp as ever."

"Good. Because you've got to let us out of here and give us back the temporal complosion device before it's too late. You don't know what's going on!"

Drakken's smile thinned a bit at that and his voice became as cold and brittle as ice. "That may be," he replied. "That is, in fact, why I'm here. There are certain aspects of the temporal complosion device that require clarification."

Jimmy looked suspicious. "Certain aspects?"

"Yes…like…oh…" Drakken paused, searching for the correct words.

Shego, more blunt than Drakken, finished for him. "Like how to turn it on, how to work it, what it does…that sort of thing." Drakken glared at Shego, who shrugged at his anger. "Hey, what are they going to do? We want something and diplomacy is not going to work here."

Drakken regained control of himself as he weighed Shego's words. "Very true, Shego," he observed. "And I suppose it does save us some time. BE sure to take all this down." Shego pulled out a notepad and pencil and he turned to Neutron. "What does that thing do and I how I get it to do it?"

"Kiss rocks," Jimmy sneered.

Shego paused in the midst of scribbling something down to ask, "Hold on. Are you saying you think that band is really good, or that you want Drakken to lip-wrestle rocks?"

"Oh, please, Shego," Drakken scoffed. "It was obviously the latter. It's the kind of smart-mouthed response I'd expect him to give." Almost as an aside he added, "Besides, it was obvious that Simmons was carrying the group."

Shego seemed to take offense at this. "Oh, please. Have you even _seen_ –"

"Moving on," Drakken interrupted in an ominous voice that caused Shego to subside. "I repeat: I want to know everything about that device and I want you to tell me."

"I'll tell you this. We're all going to die unless you give it back and let us go!"

Drakken shook his head and jammed a finger in Jimmy's face. "You're in no position to give demands here, Brain Boy."

"Will you buy a vowel already, Drakken," Kim called out angrily. "Why do you think we even stole the device if it wasn't important to the safety of the world?"

"Exactly my point. If it is so important I want to know what it does and how to work it."

"Drakken," Jimmy said calmly, trying a last attempt at reason, "listen to me. Dementor's machine malfunctioned and created something called a temporal singularity that is going to absorb everything unless we can use the temporal complosion device we stole to neutralize it. If you monkey with it and the complosion field hits the singularity you'll pull our own time into the singularity!"

Shego, who had been listening indifferently thus far, suddenly became interested. "Absorb everything?" she asked. Both Kim and Jimmy nodded and Shego looked uncertain. "I don't know, Doc. It's not like Kimmie swipes things for no reason. Their story could be on the level."

"Nonsense." Drakken dismissed Shego's concerns with a casual wave of his hand. "They're bluffing, and the good guys never bluff well."

"Maybe," Shego admitted. "But if they are the good guys, would they be lying about this?"

"If they were…lying is…sometimes to be good…" Drakken vigorously shook his head. "This is making my head hurt. I'll worry about it later."

"There may not be a 'later'!" exploded Jimmy. "We don't have a lot of time left! The singularity is pulling other slices of time towards it. We'll be seeing things from the past as they go through our own time on the way to the singularity. Eventually our own time will begin to destabilize. If we wait too long and that happens, we may not be able to neutralize the singularity. Everything will collapse into a single point in time!"

Drakken had been listening intently to Jimmy's diatribe and a thoughtful look crossed his face. "So as I understand it," he said, "this device has something to do with time?"

Jimmy and Kim let out simultaneous screams of frustration while Shego folded her arms. "Hence the word 'temporal' in the name," Shego declared in mock amazement. "Why didn't I think of that? Oh, wait…I know. Because I already did."

"If you knew, why didn't you say so?" Drakken demanded.

"Because it was obvious?"

Drakken merely grunted at her and turned back to Jimmy. "So what does it do with time? Let you see through it? Pull things through it? Travel through it? All of the above? What?"

"Forget it, Drakken," Jimmy answered in a sullen voice. "I'm not saying anything until you let us out of here and give us the device back."

"Have it your way," Drakken replied sociably. "No more Mr. Nice Evil Scientist." He pulled the portable soldering iron from inside his lab coat. He held it close to Jimmy's face and let Jimmy study it. "Do you know what this is?"

"Yes," Jimmy answered as he eyed the tool. "It's a Shur-Sodr battery-powered soldering pencil with grounded removable small chisel tip and rechargeable battery pack. Tip temperature of approximately 700° to 725° Fahrenheit. Operates 60 minutes on a single charge. I have one like it in my lab."

Jimmy's cool assessment of the soldering tool seemed to put Drakken off-balance. "Yes," he finally replied. "Precisely. In addition to soldering, it can do a number of other things. Very…nasty…things," he concluded with relish.

"You don't scare me, Drakken," Jimmy replied defiantly. "I won't tell you anything."

Kim was both horrified and incredulous at Drakken's veiled threat. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Wouldn't I?"

"Don't worry, Kim," Jimmy said. "I won't tell him anything no matter what he does to me."

"Very heroic," Drakken replied coolly as he took slow, measured steps towards Kim. "But who said that I'd do anything to _you_?" He stopped in front of Kim, smiling coldly.

Jimmy's voice was hoarse and hardly audible. "You wouldn't!"

"Don't give in, Jimmy," Kim responded. "He's bluffing."

"I never bluff," sneered Drakken.

"Believe it," Shego agreed. "His poker royally tanks."

Drakken said nothing, letting time rather than words drive his threat deeper into Jimmy's mind. After letting the boy squirm for long seconds he shrugged indifferently, activated the soldering iron, and turned to Kim, who struggled in vain to pull free of her restraints. Before Drakken could move, however, Jimmy cried out, "All right! You win! I'll help!"

Drakken shut the iron off with a cackle of triumph. "You see, Shego? That's the nature of good. It always concerns itself with the welfare of others. That's its greatest weakness."

_Doy_, thought Shego.

"Now, boy," Drakken continued, "tell me how the device works."

"It compresses sequential time, creating direct access to any point in the timestream," Jimmy said dully. "This effectively allows the user to travel to any point in time."

"Aha!" Drakken crowed. "Then it does have something to do with time!"

"Hello! I think we've already been there!" Shego pointed out. "If we're going to keep coming back to this then we're going to need a time machine just to move on with our lives."

Drakken simply growled. "All right then," Drakken replied. "How do I operate it?"

Jimmy shrugged. "I don't know."

Even Kim seemed amazed. "What?"

"I didn't invent it," Jimmy explained to her, "and I didn't have time to examine it before we were captured. I was going to analyze the schematics and blueprints and figure out how to do that." A thought crept into the back of his mind. "But I can still do that. Let me out of here and give me the blueprints and the device to study and -"

"No way!" Drakken objected. "I am not letting you out of this cell. You'll just have to tell me what to do. Shego," he instructed, "take this down."

Shego lifted pencil to pad again and nodded. "Ready."

Jimmy sighed. "All right. If the device follows standard temporal complosion design topology the first thing you'll need to do is calibrate the intermediate frequency of the chronosynclastic quantum oscillation to one-half of an octave above the fundamental self-resonance harmonic to avoid potential heterodyning issues."

Drakken's face had gone blank. "The…chrono…elastic…quantum…heterogenous…" He closed his eyes and shook his head vigorously as though to clear his head. "Shego! Read back that last part."

Shego consulted her pad. "'All right. If the devices follows standard big word, big word, blah, blah, blah, yadda-yadda-yadda.'" She looked up. "You want me to type that up for you?"

Drakken snorted in disgust and looked closely at Jimmy. "Are you making this up?"

"I thought you said that the good guys never bluff well," Jimmy replied. When Drakken's expression did not change, he sighed again and said pointedly, "No. I'm not making this up."

"Looks like you'll have to let Jimmy out if you want to make that thing work after all," Kim said.

"Don't rub it in," Drakken warned, wagging his finger at her. "All right," he told Jimmy. "I'll let you out. But just remember this. You'll be watched every minute, and I still have Possible if you're thinking about trying anything funny. _Capisce_?"

Jimmy nodded wordlessly. After summoning two henchmen Shego released his restraints and let him drop to the ground under the watchful eye of Drakken, Shego, and the additional guards. _I will save you_, Jimmy thought grimly as he exchanged a last look with Kim. _Count on it._ Then he was marched from the cell, leaving Kim still captive but now completely alone.

End of Chapter 9


	11. Chapter 10 Who Hath Ears to Hear

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 10:

While Kim awaited a change – any change – in her circumstances, Cindy and Ron were in the Strato XL several hundred miles northwest of her position on a mission to do just that. As before Cindy was operating the controls while was Ron sitting quietly, seeming deep in thought. "Are you sure we're heading the right way?" Cindy asked.

Ron roused himself. "According to Cyber Wade we are." The Kim-mando suit, as Ron called it, contained a microphone pick-up and set of earphones in the hood over which Ron could communicate with Wade's contingency program. "The GPS tracking pinpoints the Kim-municator as being – what's the distance now?"

"Five hundred thirty-seven point six three two kilometers," Wade's voice answered promptly.

Ron grunted impatiently. "In miles?"

"Now three hundred thirty-three point eight nine five miles," the voice replied after a slight pause.

"About three hundred and thirty miles," Ron told Cindy. "At this rate we should be there in about half an hour. After that, we should find Kim and Jimmy and find out what's going on."

"Assuming that the Kim-municator is still with the Kim, and that Kim is still with Jimmy, and that -"

"They're still together," Ron answered, just a little too quickly. "I mean, why wouldn't they be? Okay, sure, I can't prove it, and I don't know what all is going on, but…but…well, they're still together. We'll find them." His voice became quiet, almost sulky. "We'll find them."

"I hope so." Cindy looked at Ron with some skepticism. Despite Ron's demonstration in his bedroom not long before she still harbored some doubts as to whether he could deal with whatever situation Jimmy and Kim into which they had gotten themselves. If Kim wasn't able to handle it, then what chance did Ron, borrowing her abilities, have? As far as Jimmy was concerned –

A blinding headache suddenly hit her and she instinctively grabbed her head as she squinted from the pain. Her vision blurred for an instant and when it cleared again she saw that Ron and the hovercraft had disappeared and that she was standing on a driveway with Libby and Jimmy's father and a smoothie in her hand. "Please, Mr. Neutron!" she heard Libby say, "You're giving us massive brain freeze!"

_What in the name of –?_ Cindy wondered, but before she could complete the thought her headache vanished and she was back in the Strato XL. Looking back she saw Ron sitting as before, but with a decidedly odd expression on his face. "What happened?" she asked aloud, as much to herself as to Ron.

"Totally weird," Ron answered. "For a moment I could have sworn I was back home at Bueno Nacho talking with Kim and Monique, but that was months ago. Kind of like déjà vu, but in reverse."

Rufus nodded. "Me too," he chirped.

"You mean like a flashback?" Cindy nodded. "I had one, too." She looked worried. "That is pretty weird. And the three of us having flashbacks at the same time when Kim, Wade, and Neutron are missing seems a little too coincidental for me. But what do you think it means?"

Ron shook his head. "I have no idea. But Cyber Wade might." Raising his voice slightly he asked, "Cyber Wade! What could happen to make Cindy, Rufus, and I experience simultaneous flashbacks?"

"I'm sorry," the familiar voice replied, "but I'm only a simulation and my programmed responses are rather limited. I'm afraid I can't respond to that question."

"Okay, then, did anything weird happen in the past two minutes?"

"Checking." After a few seconds Cyber Wade answered, "Affirmative. System logs show a temporal discontinuity of approximately seven point three seconds."

"A temporal discontinuity? What's that?"

"A temporal discontinuity is a disruption in the timestream that creates a break or gap in the normal sequence of events, due either to the absence of required events or the intercalation of extraneous events."

Ron repeated this to Cindy, who frowned. "What caused it? Why did it happen at all?"

When asked, Cyber Wade replied, "I'm sorry. I'm only a simulation and my programmed responses are rather limited. I'm afraid I can't respond to that question."

"Great," Cindy muttered when Ron shook his head to her, indicating the reply. "More questions for Wade or Neutron to answer when we find them. Maybe we should start making a list."

The temporal discontinuity had affected not only the rocket's passengers but everyone everywhere, including those in Drakken's lair. Shego burst into the lab where Drakken and two guards were watching Jimmy suspiciously. "What was that?" she demanded.

"Don't ask me," Drakken said defensively. He pointed at Jimmy. "He's the smart one, remember?"

Shego fixed Jimmy with a cold stare. "Well, Poindexter? Trying something cute with that time-thing to rescue Possible?"

Prisoner or not, Jimmy did not suffer fools gladly. He stalked over to Shego and planted himself in front of her, his fists on his hips. "Okay, first of all, my name is not Poindexter. Second, I haven't even had time to start working on the temporal complosion device. Third, if I were to try something, I'd come up with something a lot more effective than what just happened. And fourth, this is exactly what I warned you people about. So zip it!"

It wasn't often that people spoke back to Shego, and the guards and Drakken backed away with small "oohs" of foreboding. Shego gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, but seemed uncertain what to do. On one hand, she had her reputation to think about and letting this go unanswered would severely damage her carefully cultivated image of ruthless efficiency. On the other, it was true that the Possible girl and the kid had warned them about some serious time issues and consequences. Furthermore, Drakken clearly needed the kid to finish whatever plan he had in mind. She decided to use the last item as a means of extricating herself from the situation.

"You're just lucky that Drakken needs you," she snarled. "If he didn't, you'd be so much charcoal right now."

"Now, or in a day or two," Neutron shrugged, returning back to the workbench. "Does it really matter that much when we all go?"

That seemed to tweak Drakken. "What are you talking about?"

Jimmy swung on Drakken now. "Don't you get it even now?" he raged. "We just experienced the first temporal interphase. A slice of the past has just passed through our time on its way to being sucked into the singularity, and it won't be long before we experience more. The structure of time itself will eventually destabilize, we'll be sucked into the singularity, and that will be the end of everything!" Jimmy's voice had increased in volume and intensity to a piercing crescendo, and he stood shaking with rage and frustration after he had finished.

Drakken simply stood there, unimpressed, but Shego was no longer as certain of things as she had been. Both her flashback and Jimmy's passionate outburst had impressed her and common sense told her that it was Jimmy, rather than Drakken, who knew more about temporal anomalies. "Maybe we should listen to him, Doc," she suggested.

"Nonsense, Shego," Drakken assured her. "Coincidence, that's all it is. If we really are in such imminent danger, why didn't Possible just go the authorities and tell them what was happening?"

"If she knew then what she knows now she probably would have acted differently," Jimmy retorted bitterly. "But she figured that the authorities weren't any smarter than you."

The insult went completely over Drakken's head. "Thank you."

"Even so -" Shego argued.

"The matter is closed," Drakken announced. "Everyone get back to work." He glared at the guards, who were idling to one side. "Especially you two. Who said you could stop in the first place? And spit out that gum."

Jimmy returned to the temporal complosion device, seething inwardly. _How_, he asked himself, _could any like Drakken call themselves a genius when they couldn't see the obvious?_ As he dwelt on it the irony of the situation came through to him. He was working on a device that gave the user mastery of time, when all the while he was running out of time. The thought of sabotaging the device had occurred to him, but he needed the device intact and damaging it would seal everyone's fate. If he could only be alone with it for five minutes he could use it to neutralize the singularity, but Drakken and the guards were watching him closely every second. For now all he could do was bide his time, but he had decided that, if time ran out, he would attempt to neutralize the singularity regardless of the possible consequences to himself.

Shego had moved next to Drakken, who was intently monitoring Jimmy's progress on the device. "So, why?" she asked.

"Why what?"

"Why is this gizmo so important, anyway? Time travel, that sort of thing."

Drakken snorted. "You surprise me, Shego. You really can't see the unlimited criminal potential for time travel?"

"Actually, no. I mean, what's done is done, and what will be, will be, right? Or so that old song says. So you find a way to go into the past and see what happened or into the future and see what will happen. That can't be of any use _now_."

Drakken chuckled humorlessly, never taking his eyes off what Jimmy was doing. As well as making sure the boy didn't try anything, it allowed him to familiarize himself with the device. "That's the operative word, Shego. _Now_. Suppose you go 100 years into the past with modern criminal tools and techniques and rob every bank in New York City. How can they prosecute you for a crime when the statute of limitations ran out seventy-five years ago? Or suppose you go into the future 100 years from now and do the same thing. How can they possibly arrest you for a crime that hasn't even happened yet?"

Shego had to admit that Drakken's arguments had at least a semblance of logic to them, which was more than most of his other schemes had to offer. Both of them were surprised by a derisive laugh from Jimmy. "You're living in a fool's paradise, Drakken," he sneered.

"That's Dr. Drakken, to you," Drakken shot back. "And what are you talking about?"

"Did it ever occur to you that you can't steal things from the past and bring them into the future?" Seeing Drakken's annoyed yet suspicious look, Jimmy went on. "No? Well, think about it. A fundamental law of the Universe is that matter and energy can't be created or destroyed. If you try to take something out of the past and bring it into the present, you've violated that law."

"So? We're criminals. That's what we do."

"That's not what I'm talking about. Suppose you go back to the day before yesterday and bring a dollar bill back to today. That means that the dollar vanishes the day before yesterday, doesn't exist yesterday, and suddenly becomes two today and for the rest of eternity. It's the Billionaire's Paradox. If your scheme could work someone could go one day into the past, take $1000 out of one account, bring it back to the present, and deposit it into another account so that they would be $1000 richer. Then they could two days into the past and do the same thing, then three days, and so forth, until they had all the money they wanted."

Drakken looked intrigued. "That actually sounds good to me."

"But it can't work. By taking the money out of the past, they've effectively destroyed matter. By bringing it into the present they've effectively created matter. That violates the fundamental law of matter and energy. And think about this second paradox. If they take withdrew money from the account on May 1st, how could they have that money to withdraw on May 2nd?"

"Because they took the money on May 2nd before they took it out on May 1st," Drakken spluttered.

Jimmy shook his head. "Only from the point of view of the subjective present. In absolute terms, the events of May 1st still occur before May 2nd."

"Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants," Drakken challenged Jimmy. "If you can't take things from one point in time to another, how can people travel through time at all? Why doesn't that create a paradox?"

"It does. In effect everything – _everything_ – becomes indeterminate from the moment someone arrives in the past on forward until the traveler returns to the time from which he initially came. You literally decide the fate of the Universe and determine the course of history as long as you exist in your past. That's why time travel is so dangerous. Any change, any change at all, could destroy the world as it once was. You leave a peanut butter sandwich on a counter in the past, and when you return the world might be ruled by cockroaches."

"Hmm. That actually sounds like the sort of thing I'd want," Drakken mused, "except for the cockroaches." He pulled out a notebook and scratched a line through something written there. "So much for bringing a sack lunch when I go into the past"

Jimmy pounded his head. "Has any of this sunk in at all?" he pleaded.

"Hold on, kid," Shego said. "What kind of changes could totally mess up history?"

Jimmy thought about it. "It depends on how far back you go. Chaos theory states that time amplifies the perturbing effects of personal actions. Going back one day into the past and eating an apple might have no discernable impact at all. But eating an apple one hundred years ago…" He shrugged. "Who can say?"

"Okay, maybe going into the past has some minor problems," Drakken admitted. "But what about the future? How can that mess up the present?"

"It can't..."

Drakken pointed a triumphant finger at Jimmy. "Aha!"

"…but only because you can't go into the future," he concluded. "The future doesn't exist yet. You can't go someplace that doesn't exist."

Drakken's jaw dropped. "Huh?"

"What about this black hole thingie that you've been talking about?" asked Shego. "I thought you said that it was somewhere in the future."

"It is. But it doesn't exist yet. If it did, we'd already be in it. But it's something we will end up in if we don't do something about it now." Jimmy struggled to put it into terms that would get his point across. "Those green energy bolts you shoot. Do you ever miss?"

"Puh-lease," Shego drawled.

"Okay. When you shoot, you haven't hit anything yet. But you know that it will. When you point and blast, you know that you'll hit what you aimed for because the laws of motion let you predict where your energy beam will hit. It's the same with time. Right now there are events in motion that will inevitably lead to a disaster if we don't change what's going to happen."

Drakken had apparently had enough. "Forget about it, Shego. It's all double-talk to confuse us and trick us into letting him and the girl go."

"It's not a trick!" Jimmy insisted with fervor. "Everything I've said is true. You have to let me use this device to neutralize the anomaly! It's our only hope!"

A bell cut short Drakken's rejoinder and he scowled as the guards looked at their watches. "Shift's over," he grudgingly admitted. "You'll have to finish up whatever it is that you're doing tomorrow. There's no way I'm paying for overtime guard duty while you tinker with that thing."

"There may not be a tomorrow!" Jimmy protested, but in vain. The guards and Shego flanked him and shepherded him back towards the cell in which Kim was still waiting. As he marched along Jimmy fumed, frustrated by Drakken's inability to see the obvious. The guards affixed the restraints to his wrists and ankles and departed, leaving Kim and Jimmy alone with Drakken. Shego regarded them silently for some time before she finally broke the silence.

"What's the sitch, Kimmie?"

Kim merely glared at her. "Let me down and I'll show you."

"Hey, I'm just trying to be sociable here." Shego positioned herself in front of Kim and cocked her head to one side. "Seriously, is what the kid here says on the level?"

"Always has been," Kim retorted.

"And we could all be sucked into some kind of black hole unless he manages to get that doohickey working and fixes things?" At Kim's wordless nod Shego began to pace back and forth, deep in thought, while Jimmy and Kim looked on. Technically Drakken was her employer, but more than a paycheck had kept Shego with him through one failed plan after another. On the other hand, Jimmy and Kim's stories were consistent and the boy genius had convinced her that he apparently understood time theory far better than Drakken and that, by inference, he better understood the dangerous forces with which Drakken intended to meddle. Finally Shego stopped. "I never thought I'd be saying this," she sighed, "but it looks like Drakken's crossed the line this time."

"Say what?" Jimmy asked in astonishment.

"I said, move over." Shego turned to confront Jimmy with an expression that Jimmy couldn't quite decipher. "You and Kimmie have just got a new team member."

End of Chapter 10


	12. Chapter 11 And Shego Makes Threego

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 11:

Jimmy's immediate reaction to Shego's announcement to join with them against Drakken was one of suspicion. "Why?" he demanded.

"Hey, gift horse here," Shego returned. "Besides, you think I want to end up spending the rest of my existence – however long that would be – inside a temporal black hole?" She waved the idea off with a grimace. "Definitely not in the job description."

"She has a point," Kim put in. "I have to admit that she always saw things a lot more clearly than Drakken ever did."

Shego took the endorsement with grudging gratitude. "And I have to admit I'm glad someone noticed who had a handle on things. Right now, though, I have to get you two loose. I don't fancy tangling with Drakken alone."

That startled Jimmy. "You mean you can't take him? I kind of thought you had the upper hand when it came to battles."

"Drakken himself isn't really a problem," Shego replied, "and his henchmen are nothing to speak of. It's his syntha-drones that are the real obstacle."

"Syntha-drones?"

"Don't ask," Kim told Jimmy. The memory of her encounter with Erik was still an open wound, and the less she had to do with syntha-drones the happier she would be. "Just get us out of these things and let's get going."

Shego pointed her finger at shackle binding Jimmy's wrists, steadying it with her other hand. "Okay, just hold still and think nice, cool thoughts."

Kim looked worried. "Can't you just unlock us?"

Shego shook her head. "Sorry, Princess. I can't unlock these things. The locks need two keys and I only have one."

"Great," Jimmy groaned.

"Hey, don't blame me," Shego protested. "If a certain meddling cheerleader didn't keep getting out of these kinds of situations so easily Drakken would have been perfectly happy to use just one key."

"Well, who has the other key?" Kim asked. "Or do I really have to ask?"

"Well, he's blue, a little too into himself, and has a nasty disposition when people cross him. I really don't think he'd be willing to hand over his key." She positioned herself again to fire at Jimmy's shackles.

"You're probably right."

"You're darn right I'm -" Shego began, and then realized that neither Jimmy nor Kim had spoken. "He's right behind me, isn't he?"

Jimmy nodded wordlessly. Both he and Kim had been so absorbed in what Shego was doing that neither had noticed Drakken's silent approach. Drakken fixed Shego with a withering gaze as she turned to face him. "Et tu, Shego?" he said.

Shego, used to being tight spots, tried to bluff her way out. "Hey, Dr. D!" she called out with a laugh. "Fancy seeing you here. I just thought I might try to get a little more information out of these two since they don't have much else to do. You know...just hanging around here."

Drakken expression didn't soften. "Save it," he said, clipping the words off as sharply as with a cleaver. "Did you think I wouldn't have this cell bugged?"

"Oh, great." Shego's voice was a study in bitterness and sarcasm. "We capture Possible and her sidekick every other Tuesday and the one time I try to throw in with them to save the world they're locked in a cell with a listening device."

"Not bad for a person who's 'a little too into himself', wouldn't you say?" asked Drakken. "Didn't it occur to you that I might also think I could get some useful information listening in on what they had to say to each other?"

"Well, now that you mention it, no," was Shego's reply. She dropped into a defensive stance and her hands burst into green flame. "Okay, Doc, maybe you won't believe me when I say that I was doing this as much for you as for myself. But hand over the key and let these two do what they have to. Don't make me do something I really don't want to do."

Drakken merely smiled, looking for all the world like a cat confronting a cornered mouse. "Oh, ladies," he called sweetly. "Would you come here, please?"

In answer to his call two dark-haired women appeared on either side of Drakken. Except for their uniforms, which were a deep blue, they looked identical to Shego, even down to the frown she usually wore. Shego, after her initial shock, was furious. "I thought we had a deal!" she raged. "No clones!"

"But these aren't clones," Drakken assured her. "These are the latest improvement in my line of syntha-drones, using the latest in genetic imprinting technology."

Shego didn't relax her guard. "Genetic imprinting?"

Drakken glanced over at Jimmy, who sighed and said, "It's a technique of directly transferring the characteristics from the genetic pattern of one individual to another without having to go through the process of cloning."

"Very good!" Drakken beamed. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

"If you could have at all," Kim sniped.

"I'll ignore that," Drakken sniffed. "What I've done, Shego, is to extract all the marvelous capabilities in that unique irradiated DNA of yours and transfer it into my latest batch of syntha-goo. I call it…_She-goo_."

"_She-goo?_" echoed Jimmy and Kim together.

"_She-goo?_" Shego mouthed with distaste.

"Yes!" the evil scientist chortled in delight. "And with it these drones are absolutely obedient to my will, with the full capabilities of the original subject." He leered at Shego. "Namely, you."

"We'll see about that!" Shego snarled. She leaped forward as streams of emerald energy poured from her hands towards one of the syntha-drones at Drakken's side. The replica, however, simply flipped out of the way. Simultaneously, the other drone loosed a similar burst of energy towards Shego. Shego succeeded in dodging the blast, only to be caught by second barrage from the first replica she had attacked and sent crashing to the floor. She rolled aside in time to prevent being hit by another bolt, but before she could launch a counter-attack one of the syntha-drones was on her, seizing her arms. A second later the other replicant was also there, effectively neutralizing her. Drakken sauntered up to Shego with a wicked smile.

"It really is true, you know," he gloated. "If one is good, two are even better."

Shego struggled uselessly against the combined might of the syntha-drones. "Drakken," she stuttered in rage, "you can't…you don't know what you're doing! You're going to get us all killed!"

"Or worse," Jimmy added, without much hope of influencing Drakken.

"For someone who doesn't know what he's doing," Drakken answered with a shake his head, "it appears that I'm holding all the cards. And since it seems that you have some new friends, it's only fitting that you share their cell with them. Lock her up!" he ordered the syntha-drones.

The was done in short order, leaving Shego chained to the wall between Jimmy and Kim. After relieving Shego of her key Drakken stepped back and regarded Shego with a look of sorrow. "It's really too bad, Shego," he said. "I thought we were like family. To be betrayed like this is worse than anything Possible or her friend could have done to me."

"I did it to save us! To save you!" Shego shouted back. "Can't you get that into your head?"

Drakken didn't appear to hear Shego's words. "Maybe it really wasn't deliberate betrayal so much as a misunderstanding," Drakken mused aloud. "Perhaps just confusion. I guess my brain-tapping device can get to the bottom of it, once I -"

He was interrupted by the almost deafening blare of an alarm klaxon that startled them all, save perhaps the syntha-drones. Seconds later one of Drakken's henchman appeared. "Sir!" he announced. "Our systems have detected a small aircraft approaching this location. It's coming in fast and will be here in about three minutes."

"How fast?" Drakken demanded.

"Difficult to gauge, sir. Best guess is somewhere between Mach 3 and Mach 4."

"A missile?"

"Impossible, sir," the henchman insisted. "Propulsion signature is unknown and its flight profile doesn't match any missile on file."

Drakken pounded a gloved fist into his palm. "That's not possible," he muttered. "Nothing can fly that fast. Unless…" He shot a quick look at Jimmy, but seemed to discount the idea that had come to him.

_It has to be the Strato_, Jimmy thought. _But who would be flying it_?

"Shall we shoot it down, Doctor?"

Drakken considered the henchman's suggestion and slowly shook his head. "No," he said. "I want to see what this thing is. If it really is coming here, allow it to land unchallenged." He looked at the syntha-drones silently awaiting his next orders and allowed himself a smile. "I have a little surprise I'd like to try out."

As the Strato neared the location that Cyber-Wade assured Ron was the source of the Kim-municator's signal, Cindy throttled back to subsonic speeds, feeling as well as hearing the sonic boom as they dropped back below Mach 1. "We're almost there," she announced needlessly.

Ron nodded. "I know. I wonder what we'll find."

"That's why we're here." She again glanced over Ron's suit. "Are you sure you know how to use that thing?"

"I don't know that I have to. I kind of get the impression that it makes its own decisions and take me along for the ride." He looked curiously at Cindy. "Why do you ask?"

"Something tells me that we're going to need it," Cindy replied. "I mean, if Kim couldn't handle whatever it was that she found here…"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Ron objected strenuously. "We don't know that anything here is the reason why Kim hasn't called Wade. She may have just dropped the Kim-municator, or it got damaged so she couldn't call, or something simple like that. Let's not go borrowing trouble here."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," agreed Rufus.

"Even so," Cindy said, "there's something up, what with Wade going missing, Kim coming to see Jimmy, both of them disappearing without a word, and that weird flashback we both had." She sighed. "Even if there is nothing dangerous here, there's something big going on. And I doubt Wade would have given you that suit if he didn't think that only something major might be up."

Ron said nothing, but Cindy had apparently been thinking out loud and didn't seem to notice. The truth of the matter was that Ron also felt that something serious was going on, but he refused to accept the possibility that anything bad could have happened to Kim. Part of him steadfastly believed that she could handle anything, while the other part didn't want to face the implications that she may have come to harm and that the same peril awaited them. If there were danger, he fiercely told himself, he would face it when he came to it. For now, he would continue to believe that Kim was all right and she would greet him with the same sunny greeting she had always had for him.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that Cindy's nudge startled him. Looking about he saw that they had landed on a smooth ledge formed by a large outcropping on the side of a high mountain. As they exited Jimmy's rocket both Ron and Cindy saw a dark opening, half again as tall as a main and five times as wide, hidden among the fold of rock. The looked at each other, shrugged, and entered. Considering the situation there was little else to do.

The opening led to a fairly large chamber, and it was immediately clear to them that they must be on the right track. The chamber was clearly man-made, for while the walls were rough and folded the floor was smooth and level and electric lights hung from the ceiling high overhead, reflected in the polished floor below. On the far side of the cavern was another opening, apparently leading to wherever the Kim-municator must be.

"Can you read me?" Ron whispered. The large room instinctively made him lower his voice.

"Loud and clear," Cyber Wade's voice replied. "The signal is about sixty meters –"

"English, please?" Ron hissed softly.

"Sorry. About two hundred feet ahead of you and five hundred feet below."

Ron looked at Cindy. "It looks like we go forward and down," he said, _soto voce_. "There must be a stairway just through that other doorway."

Cindy frowned. "So this is the only way in?" she whispered back.

"Apparently."

"So why aren't there any guards?" She looked around, not liking the situation, every instinct in her screaming danger. "This is a big room. Why is it empty?"

"I don't know," Ron admitted. "But it's not like it's on a main street with people passing by all the time. Maybe they planned to have guards but found that they didn't need them."

Cindy thought about it and rejected the explanation. "No. They know we were coming. It's a trap."

Ron looked confused. "How could they know we were coming? We didn't even know we were coming."

"I don't know," Cindy answered. "But it's a trap. I feel it. I can almost smell it. The only question is who is -"

A bolt like liquid jade sizzled past both of them, sending Cindy sprawling on the floor and causing Ron to flip aside, rebounding off one of the rock walls and landing lightly some distance away. "I'll give you two guesses who," he muttered grimly. Without thinking about it he dropped into a defensive martial arts stance, prepared to face his unseen attacker. As he waited a lean, full-maned figure emerged from behind one of rock folds in the wall, her hands wrapped in a sinister emerald glow.

"It looks like I won't need that second guess," Cindy growled, picking herself off the floor. "It's Shego!" As she regained her feet another figure, identical to the first, emerged from another cranny on the other side of the room, causing her to gape in disbelief. When she found her voice again, she gulped, "Or then again…maybe I will."

End of Chapter 11


	13. Chapter 12 First Strike

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 12:

"Clones!" Ron gritted his teeth in revulsion as he squinted at the identical and unmistakable forms confronting him and Cindy. "I hate clones!"

"Clones?" Cindy took a moment digest this announcement, all the while keeping a wary eye on the figures on the other side of the chamber. "You mean like duplicate people?"

"Yes. Although the ones from Drakken that I've encountered aren't really clone clones. They're more cut-rate copies of the originals without much of a personality to speak of. They're vicious, and savage, and generally have a low opinion of everyone they meet…" Ron considered this. "Although, come to think of it, that really wasn't much of a change from the real Bonnie." He shuddered. "Be glad you haven't had to mess with them."  
"Believe me, I have. Six of them. And, surprisingly, every one of them was more annoying than the original." She considered it. "Well, almost every one of them."

"How did you get rid of them?"

"Jimmy froze most of them with interplanetary ice. You?"

"Melted them with soda. Unfortunately we don't have either. It is funny, though."

Cindy risked a quick look at him. "What's funny?"

"Well, Shego was never thrilled about Drakken trying to clone her. I wonder what changed her mind."

"Couldn't say." Cindy motioned nervously towards the still images of Shego. "Why aren't they doing anything?"

As if in answer to Cindy's question, one of the figures spoke. "Identify Ron Stoppable," it said. "Attack capabilities, minimal. Defense capabilities, minimal. Overall threat assessment, insignificant. Subdue and return subject to Doctor Drakken."

When the first form of Shego had finished its analysis the other duplicate stirred and announced. "Secondary target unidentified. Attack capabilities, unknown. Defense capabilities, unknown. Overall threat assessment, indeterminate. Employ any and all measures necessary to subdue or eliminate potential threat."

It wasn't until the second duplicate fired another blast of green energy that Cindy realized that it had been speaking about her. For a split second she couldn't help dwelling on the irony of the situation, in which Ron in his Kim-mando suit was considered a negligible risk while she was regarded as a serious enough threat to be eliminated. Then she had no more time to think of anything but avoiding the potentially lethal onslaught of her attacker.

The situation was not lost on Ron, who decided to take full advantage of the error in judgment on the part of his assailant. Resisting the temptation to use the suit, he adopted a defensive stance and stood his ground, waiting for the overconfident doppelganger to move within striking distance. "Surrender, Ron Stoppable," the duplicate Shego intoned as it approached. "You cannot win. Resistance is futile."

"Good advice," Ron observed as his opponent reached the position he was waiting for. "Why don't you take it?" Before the image of Shego could move Ron dove forward, landing lightly on his hands rebounding forward again, completing a flip, and driving both feet hard into the face of his adversary and sending it staggering backwards. Without giving the copy of Shego time to recover Ron drove forward with a series of spin kicks to the body, concluding with a final smashing back kick that left his opponent slumped against one of the rock walls on the floor.

As Ron fell back into neutral stance, ready to press the attack or defend if need be, the form stirred and looked up with a familiar scowl but eyes devoid of emotion. As it passed a hand over its mouth, wiping a streak of blue ooze from its lips, Ron suddenly recognized what he had really been fighting.

"Oh, gross!" he said. "That's syntha-goo. We're fighting syntha-drones!"  
Cindy rolled out of the way of a vicious swipe to her head. "What?"

"Syntha-drones. They're kind of like robots or androids but instead of wires and circuits they have this goo stuff inside that makes them operate." He paused for second to dodge a blast from the drone and retaliate with a well-executed combination of reverse punches. "All we have to do is puncture their outer casings to let the syntha-goo out and they'll kind of shrivel up."

Rufus, who had been laying low, poked his head out to chirp, "Uh-huh, uh-huh," before disappearing again.

Cindy ducked beneath her own and more cautious syntha-drone's attack to land two spirited, if largely ineffective, punches of her own on the drone's knee. The Shego copy's counter-strike, a vicious sweep of its forearm, caught Cindy on her shoulder and sent her sprawling on the floor. "Hey, great," she said listlessly, dragging herself back to her feet. "That's all we have to do, is it?" Had she been fighting the real Shego it was doubtful whether Cindy would have lasted this long, but the syntha-drone's inexperience and excessive caution had worked in her favor. Thus far Cindy's moves had been primarily defensive, but now that she knew of a weakness to exploit she altered her tactics in favor of a more aggressive, albeit riskier, strategy. Feigning slightly more disorientation and weakness than she actually felt, Cindy let her attacker move in for a final assault before suddenly somersaulting inside the syntha-drone's guard and driving her stiffened fingers directly into the drone's midsection.

What happened next was both surprising and nauseating. Rather than puncturing the syntha-drone's outer casing as she had expected to, Cindy merely succeeded in pushing the drone's flexible external covering in and burying her arm up to the elbow in what felt like very rubbery dough before extracting it and back-flipping away. For a moment the Shego duplicate stood there with a deep impressing of Cindy's punch in her stomach before the indentation slowly filled in again.

"Eww! Gross!" Cindy objected.

Ron had also discovered that puncturing the syntha-drone's artificial skin was much harder than it sounded. Despite his enhanced speed and agility his most powerful blows showed no signs of damaging the syntha-drone's tough sheath. Worse, the syntha-drone had apparently re-assessed his combat abilities because it had increased the ferocity and intensity of its own attacks, forcing him to spend much of his time in purely defensive action. "This is not good," Ron called out. "Why do scientists always have to improve things? Why can't they just leave things alone?"

Although Cindy shared Ron's complaint she was far too busy defending herself again to reply. It was only a matter of time before her synthetic opponent broke through her defenses and left her open to a final, decisive attack. The moment came when Cindy, misjudging her distance from the chamber wall while backpedaling, found herself penned in on one side by one of the rocky folds and without any avenue of escape. The syntha-drone moved in for the kill as Cindy threw up her arms in a last instinctive and desperate gesture to protect herself.

"No, I haven't seen them today, either," she heard Libby say. "But I can't say I've actually been looking."

"Libby?" Cindy asked in astonishment.

"Okay, _maybe_ I was curious about what Sheen was doing, but just because I was bored," Libby amended. "Don't be reading anything into that."

Cindy looked around, confused. She and Libby were sprawled on Libby's bed, a half-dozen fashion and teen magazines strewn between them. Cindy peered closer at one of the vaguely familiar magazine covers, realizing with a shock that it was one that had come out months ago. As she thought on it she recalled having spent a Saturday afternoon with Libby in just this way, with these magazines and discussing just this topic. What was she doing here?

The next instant she was back facing her foe, awaiting its final, devastating attack. Cindy stood there, frozen in her defensive posture, as the seconds dragged by like hours. When nothing happened, she slowly relaxed and peered closely at the syntha-drone. The drone still wore the same savage expression with her arms poised to strike, but otherwise seemed totally immobile. A quick glance in Ron's direction showed that he was very much in the same situation.

"Like, totally weird," Ron muttered, waving a hand in front of his syntha-drone's face. "It's like they shut down or something."

"And at just the right time," Cindy observed. She hesitantly poked her adversary and immediately backed quickly away. When there was no response, Cindy inched closer and poked it harder. "I wonder what happened?"

"Beats me. I was just getting ready to try another combination on this one and had another one of those flashbacks. When it ended this drone was just standing there. Do you suppose they blew a fuse or something?"

With the immediate danger over Cindy's attention immediately switched back to the mission. "Whatever happened, we can worry about it later. Right now we're here to find Neutron and Kim. I say we take advantage of the situation and press on."

Ron nodded. "Good idea. Although…"

"What?"

Ron looked uncomfortable. "Don't you think we should try to deflate these things, or whatever? Since we don't know what shut them down there's no telling what might start them up again."

Cindy had to admit that Ron's idea had merit, but it quickly became apparent that she had nothing with which to puncture the syntha-drone's tough hide. "I don't suppose that fancy suit of yours has a knife or something, does it?"

Ron consulted with Cyber Wade and shook his head. "Nope. No knives. Strictly non-lethal technology."

Cindy sighed. "Then I guess we leave the Shego wannabes here. It we run into them again, well, we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Let's get moving." And with that she and Ron crossed to the portal on the other side of the chamber, disappearing through it to move deeper into Drakken's lair.

Back in their cell, Shego was fuming. "That is getting really annoying!" she proclaimed loudly. "How many times are we going to have those stupid temporal interphases?"

Jimmy, who was thinking about the experience involving the Encyclopedia of Infinite Knowledge he had just relived, shook his head. "I don't know. Until I can figure out the common factor there's no way to be sure how many more are coming, or when. But I have to admit," he added, "that I'm impressed that you remembered what they were called."

"Well, there must be something they have in common," Kim said. "What was happening when the first one hit us?"

"Well, you were in this cell, and I was with Drakken checking over the temporal complosion device, and Shego was…" Jimmy stopped and asked, "What were you doing?"

"I was in the little assistant's room, if you must know," Shego replied sourly.

Kim sighed. "Doesn't seem like much common ground there, unless hanging in this cell has some special significance."

"If this affects all of existence none of us may be the common factors," Jimmy pointed out. "But I'm almost positive that there has to be a connection."

"So what if there is?" Shego demanded. "What good would that do us?"

"I'm not sure. But considering our circumstances we need any advantage we can get."

"I don't suppose you can blast your restraints, can you Shego?" Kim asked.

Shego rolled her eyes. "Don't you think I already considered that? If I do any blasting it's going to be straight up. The shock might jar the shackles in this cell open but more than likely the ceiling would also collapse…on me."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take," Kim replied.

"Oh, that's great," Shego snorted. "Don't give up your world-saving day job, Princess, because as a comedian you definitely wouldn't cut it."

"I'm not joking," Kim retorted instantly. "All of existence is at stake here. It's time to take some chances and possibly make some sacrifices if we're going to save it."

Shego nearly laughed at that. "And you expect me to make the sacrifices? Puh-lease."

"Well, considering all the problems you've caused in the past –" Kim answered hotly.

"And considering I'm in this mess only because I tried to help you – " Shego shot back.

"Wait a minute! That's it!" Jimmy cried. "The past!"

Kim and Shego spoke together. "What's it?"

"Jinx! You owe me a soda!" cried Kim.

Shego gave her a cold look. "As if."

"Can I have your attention, please?" Jimmy put in.

"Go ahead," Kim said. Under her breath she added, "Soda cheat."

"I heard that, Princess."

"As I said," Jimmy continued in a loud voice, "I think I know what's going on. Kim – you remember when I said that the singularity might first be affecting things that were somehow outside of the time stream?" Kim nodded and Jimmy went on. "Well, it might be affecting destabilized past events from the time stream."

Kim blinked. "Say again?"

"I mean that the common element to the interphases may be what happened in the past. The temporal interphases we've been experiencing all involve events when the time stream was unstable. The first interphase involved when I was using my quantum replay device that eventually threw me and my friends back 200 million years. The second one, just now, had to do with when I used my time booth to alter the past. In both cases the time stream was being manipulated. Apparently it loosened those slices of the past enough for the singularity to pull them through our time."

"Wonderful," Shego said dryly. "And where does that get us?"

"It means that we have at least one more interphase headed our way. Unless either of you have been doing any time manipulation."

"Nope," was Shego's answer.

Kim shook her head. "Not me."

"Okay, then. The one other time I messed with time was a fairly big event. I used my time pincher to pull Thomas Edison into the present to prove that Guglielmo Marconi didn't invent the wireless receiver until the year 1902."

"You know, I'm beginning to think that you and Drakken aren't so different after all," Shego commented as she gave Jimmy an odd look. "Did you ever think about maybe just using a dictionary?"

"I'm nothing like Drakken," Jimmy objected. "Besides, dictionaries are old school and I needed incontrovertible, authoritative proof."

"To do what?"

"To prove that Cindy's class report was all wet!" Jimmy declared vehemently.

Shego shook her head. "Oh, yes. You are nothing at all like Drakken. He's someone who's totally obsessed with the most insignificant, meaningless trifles, whereas you focus on…what was it you were using that time pincher thing to do again?"

Before Jimmy could reply Kim spoke up. "Okay, Jimmy, we know that we can expect another temporal interphase. But as Shego said, how does that help us?"

"I don't know yet," Jimmy answered. "But I'll think of something."

End of Chapter 12

Author's Notes:

Some astute readers have objected to Jimmy's statement that "you can't go into the future" and that moving things from one point in time to another doesn't destroy it. At the risk of starting a debate on temporal mechanics I'll try to elaborate on these items.

As Jimmy pointed out, when you move an object in time the object continues to exist from the point of view of the subjective present (that is, as far as the person who has the object and is traveling through the time is concerned). But as far as everyone else in the Universe is concerned, from the time the object is taken to the time it reappears it is outside the time stream and has ceased to exist. There has been net decrease in the overall amount of time and energy in the Universe.

As far as traveling into the future goes, I would like to differentiate between traveling forward in time and traveling into the future, where the "future" refers to what will be just as the "past" refers to what has been and the "present" refers to what is. I would also point out that the episodes cited prove my point. The "futures" that were visited, including that shown in "The Tomorrow Boys (which happens after this story), were completely undone and will (so far as we know) never happen. In the case of "A Sitch in Time" the entire sequence of events after Kim and Ron left school never even happened, as the destruction of the Tempus Simia caused everything that Shego had tried to do to be undone and never come to pass. Consequently neither Shego nor Kim (nor Ron) recall ever having traveled through time before in this story. Even classic movies about time travel (such as "The Terminator" series and "Back to the Future" series) emphasize that the future is not fixed and that there is no fate but what we make. This is pretty much in line with the Heisenberg Principle, which states that observation inherently affects the situation being observed. I maintain that you can't travel the time stream without affecting it, hence Jimmy's well-placed caution about time travel.

This is horribly long and undoubtedly tedious, but I felt I owed it to those curious readers after taking forever to finish and post this chapter.


	14. Chapter 13 One Moment in Time

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 13:

Jimmy woke from a sleep he had never intended to take, wondering what it was that had woken him. Both Shego and Kim seemed to be sleeping, although Shego seemed to be alert even while asleep. Jimmy recalled that she had had ninja training and didn't doubt that she slept only when she wanted to. As he looked around, wondering vaguely what time it was, a gleeful shout echoed faintly in the distance.

"Oh, will you give it a rest already?" Shego mumbled drowsily.

"Shego!" Jimmy hissed.

Shego opened her eyes and gave Jimmy a cranky look. "What?"

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"That noise," Jimmy answered, gesturing vaguely with his head. "It sounded like someone shouting."

"Oh, that." Shego yawned and stretched as best she could, secured as she was to the wall. "That was just Drakken. Something probably filtered into that pea brain of his and he just had to jump for joy a few times." She closed her eyes and prepared to doze off again. "Just ignore it. He'll probably settle down in a few minutes."

Jimmy looked worried. "I don't think I should. If he's figured out anything it's probably something about that temporal complosion device. If he's figuring out how to operate it…"

"…we could be in big trouble. As if we weren't in big trouble already." Shego looked expectantly at Jimmy. "You figure out how we're going to get out of here yet?"

Jimmy shook his head, feeling irritated with himself with sleeping when he should have been working on a solution. "Not yet, but I'm sure there must be a way. There's a way out of any cage."

"Yes," agreed Shego. "It's called a door and it needs a key."

Jimmy's retort was interrupted by Kim, who had been awakened by their conversation. "You're always the ray of sunshine. Right, Shego?"

Shego shrugged. "I calls them as I sees them."

Jimmy twisted uncomfortably, as much as from his frustration as hanging from the wall for hours. "I wish I knew what time it was."

"It's about 2:30 in the morning," Drakken's voice replied. He entered the chamber with a wicked chortle and tapped his watch. "I know because I made a special point of noting the time for my posterity."

"I'd say your posterior is a lot more substantial than your posterity will ever be," Shego snorted.

Drakken emitted a low grunt but refused to be baited. "I shall overlook that," he stated, "because of the momentous occasion of this day." He paused expectantly but no one spoke or even seemed interested. "Well?" Drakken urged. "Aren't you wondering what makes this day so momentous an occasion?"

Kim looked at Jimmy and Shego and gave an indifferent shrug. "Not really."

"Been there, done that," put in Shego.

"I think I'll just wait for the movie," added Jimmy.

If Drakken had a particularly pronounced weakness among his many other shortcomings it was his craving for attention. "You'll wait for the – as if I'd ever let you see it," he spluttered. "For your information, I have succeeded in discovering the secrets of the temporal complosion device's operation."

"You know how to work it?" Kim blurted out.

"Even better," Drakken preened. "I've improved on it. I have connected it to my own augmentation devices so that it has more power than before."

Shego didn't sound very impressed. "And just how much power would that have been?"

Drakken's hands made motions like squeezing a large cushion. "Powerful enough to…if you compared it with…the amount of energy is…" He gave up on the attempt. "Very, very powerful, okay? And now it's powerfuller. More powerfuller. Stronger."

"And just what is this more powerful temporal complosion device supposed to do?" Jimmy asked.

Drakken teeth showed in an broad and evil grin. "It's going to let me do the one thing I could never do before," he said. "I'm going to eliminate something that's been a thorn in my side for longer than I care to remember. And you want to know what the most wonderful thing about all this will be?" He whirled and pointed at Kim, who was taking Drakken's ranting with cool skepticism. "There won't be any Kim Possible around to stop me this time!" He burst into diabolical laughter and left them to think over what he had said.

"I don't like the way he said that," Jimmy ventured after Drakken's guffaws had faded into the distance.

"I don't like the way he says anything," Kim returned, "but I've gotten used to it."

Shego looked uncertain. "I think the kid may be right. For a total goof he can make some pretty sinister contraptions. It's possible that whatever he's cobbled together may actually work. And it sounds as though he has a personal grudge against you, Princess."

"And even if his contraption doesn't work," Jimmy went on, "the time stream has been pretty badly messed up. Activating his device now might throw us all into that singularity. We've got to do something!"

Kim racked her brain but came up empty. "Okay, I'm open to suggestions."

"Same here," was Shego's response.

Jimmy closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing his thoughts in the special way that was his peculiar gift.. "Come on," he muttered to himself. "Think. Think! _Think!_"

_…Lead to a disaster if we don't change what's going to happen…_

_…Time amplifies the perturbing effects of personal actions…_

_If she knew then what she knows now…_

"Brain blast!" he cried. "It's been right in front of me! To change the way things are now, we have to change what's already happened!"

"Great idea, kid," Shego said. "But as it happens only Drakken has a time machine, remember? No way back for us."

"Yes, we can't go back into the past," Jimmy agreed. "But remember, the past is coming to us through those temporal interphases that we've been experiencing. When the next one hits, we can take that opportunity to make a difference in the past that could help us now."

Kim nodded slowly. "I think I see. If we could stop that comploder from being damaged this whole thing might never occur."

"In theory," Jimmy nodded, "but I doubt that that's not going to happen. For one thing, we'll be experiencing a specific moment in time that has nothing to do with when the comploder was damaged. For another, we'll only be interphased for a short time and we'll be disoriented like we've been before and not be able to think of or do anything too complicated. But somehow, when it happens, we'll need to try doing something that will help us get out of here."

"Okay, let me get this straight," Shego said. "We don't know just when this will happen, we won't have any control over what will be happening, and we won't really know what we should do, but we have to do it anyway to get us out of here?"

Jimmy sighed. "I know, I know. It's a slim chance, but it's our only one."

Shego's voice sounded oddly cheerful, and neither Jimmy nor Kim knew if she was being serious or not. "No, no, don't get me wrong. Let's do this thing. Bring on the interphase." Then, like a switch being thrown, her voice took on its usual sarcastic edge. "You _can_ bring it on, right?"

"You know I can't."

"Then why get so hyped about it? We could be here for minutes, or hours, or days. Or possibly forever, waiting for something that might never happen before that singularity thing swallows us whole." Shego's voice was an odd mix of both triumph and defeat, but Jimmy refused to give up.

"Possibly," he said, "but I don't think so. Based on when the time fluxes that I know about happened and how far apart the interphases have occurred I'd say that the next one should be along pretty soon now." He thought a bit before adding, "Of course, that assumes square law time contraction based upon a constant rate of temporal acceleration of the time segments towards the singularity, but I don't have enough data to attempt a higher-order approximation right now."

Kim simply stared at him and nodded. "Right," was all she said.

"Just remember," Jimmy went on, "we have to think of some way that will get us out of this predicament and act fast, because we won't have a lot of time to -"

"A hovercar? What the rootie-toot's a hovercar?" a quavering voice interrupted him.

Jimmy looked around, suddenly aware that he was in front of the time pincher in his lab with Thomas Edison. _What's going on?_ he wondered. He had come here to bring Thomas Edison from the past to show up that know-nothing Cindy and her erroneous report about Guglielmo Marconi. But there was something else he had to do, something that he couldn't quite remember. He felt that it was something about another lab, and danger, and time running out but it was just beyond conscious thought. If he had just a few more moments he was sure he could remember it, but as he tried to focus on them the confusing thoughts faded and were gone. With a resigned shrug he started towards his hovercraft. "Right this way, Mr. Edison," he said. "I'm sure that you'll find it interesting." Whatever it was that he was trying to think of couldn't have been all that important, he decided. And if it was, he would probably remember it later.

In Middleton Ron and Kim were heading home from school for the day just as a wave of dizzying pain hit them. "Whoa-oh," Ron moaned. "Brain freeze!" Rufus also groaned in pain.

"The…future?" Kim asked, confused.

"What was that, K. P.?"

Kim tried to think, looking troubled. "Something…something about the future."

Ron thought as well and his face brightened. "Uh…yeah, right, right. I was saying that the future was bright."

"Yeah, Ron, yeah. It really is," Kim smiled, but something inside told her that there was something else that she couldn't quite remember. Something important about the future. But what?

"And I hate meat cakes," Ron declared as they marched on.

Kim, trying hard to think of what it was she couldn't remember, was only half-listening. "Huh?"

"No idea why I said that," Ron replied, oblivious to Kim's fretful expression.

As they walked Kim fought to recall what it was that she was supposed to remember about the future and lost as the last troubling half-thoughts vanished beyond recall. _Oh well_, she thought, _it's the first day of school and I have Latin homework to worry about._ Whatever it was that she couldn't remember could wait. After all, it wasn't as though the world depended on it.

"Shego!"

Shego started at the call. "What?"

"We haven't got all day!" Drakken complained. "Have you finished welding that superstructure to the chassis yet?"

Shego considered the welding torch in her hand and then shifted her gaze to Doctor Drakken far below. "Welding?" She snapped off the torch and surveyed the metal framework adjacent to the scaffolding upon which she stood. "Yeah. Finished."

"Well, it's about time," Drakken fussed. "The sooner we're finished with this the sooner we can put my greatest evil scheme ever into operation. There'll be no way for Kim Possible to stop us this time. Just think, Shego. The future is nearly within my grasp!"

_Kim Possible?_ Shego thought. _The future?_

Drakken continued to fume. "When I consider all the times that girl has ruined my plans, I could just…"

_Just think…the future…_

"…but this time," Drakken continued, "I've considered everything. There's no way I can fail!"

"Uh-huh," Shego murmured absently, not hearing a word that her boss was saying. She set the torch down and started to strip off the insulated gloves she was wearing, but stopped short to stare at them. Not really sure why she was doing so, she left the thick gloves on and pulled her usual green and black pair over them before descending from the scaffolding. By the time she reached the bottom her mind was again clear and focused on the job at hand. "Okay, Doc," she said. "What's next?"

Back in the cell Jimmy, Kim, and Shego became aware of their surroundings again. Kim was the first to speak. "Well?"

Jimmy shook his head. "Nothing. I tried to remember what was going on but the temporal distortion from my time pincher garbled my thoughts too much. I wasn't able to do anything."

Kim looked defeated. "Same here. But I don't know why. I just had this case of brain freeze or something and by the time I could think clearly again I was back here." She looked over at Shego. "I guess you're our only hope, Shego. Did you manage to do anything?"

Shego looked up at her shackled wrists. "Lets find out." A look of intense concentration came over her face and a green glow surrounded her gloved hands. Slowly, knowing that too much power could ruin everything and leave her injured or dead, she willed the almost living energy to envelope the coverings on her hands. It was not enough to affect the metal restraints, but was sufficient to gradually burn the fabric off her hands, layer by anxious layer. At last both of her hands and wrists were bare.

"Okay, you got you gloves off." Jimmy conceded. "Now what?"

"Watch and learn, Poindexter," replied Shego. "I was wearing two pair." She folded the fingers of one hand together into a crude lobster claw and began rotating it. "If I'm right, I think that the inner pair were thick enough to leave enough of a gap for me to work my hands free of this." The others watched silently as Shego laboriously twisted and pulled her hand against the restraint. For anxious moments Kim and Jimmy watched until suddenly, with a wrench that left skin on the manacle, Shego succeeded in pulling one hand free of the shackle. Not bothering to try the same thing with the other manacle, she pointed the index finger of her free hand and burnt the other restraint open. Next, she freed her feet and leapt down to the floor, pacing back and forth for a few seconds to get the circulation in her feet moving again before freeing the others.

"Good job," congratulated Jimmy once he was down. "I guess we both owe you one."

"Unfortunately," was Kim's unenthusiastic comment.

"Save it," Shego answered. "I'm not really in this hero business by choice, you know."

Kim was about to reply when Jimmy spoke up. "She's right," he said. "We don't have time to go into that stuff now. We have to find Drakken and stop him from using whatever it is that he's cooked up. You two think you can handle his syntha-drones and henchmen if we meet any?"

"You just watch me," Kim assured him.

"And you just stay out of my way, Princess," Shego put in. "I have a couple things to settle with Drakken and no one had better get in my way."

"I assume that means yes," Jimmy said. "Okay, then, let's go."

Both Shego and Jimmy had been out of the cell before and knew the way to Drakken's lab, so they took the lead with Kim bringing up the rear guard. Jimmy and Kim expected to find guards and more drones awaiting them, but were surprised to encounter none. "What gives?" Kim asked quietly as they moved stealthily towards the lab.

"Hey, it's 3:00 AM in the morning and we're supposed to be locked up," Shego pointed out. "You really think that Drakken is going to unpocket to pay for guards working overtime?"

"I suppose not," Kim admitted, familiar as she was with Drakken's reknowned parsimony. She suddenly stopped. "What was that?" she whispered.

"What was what?" Jimmy asked, instinctively lowering his voice.

Kim peered ahead. "I thought I heard something just ahead."

Jimmy listened hard and shook his head. "I don't hear anything."

Shego, who had also been listening, said softly, "Kimmie is right. Someone is coming this way down that one corridor up ahead."

"Guards?" asked Jimmy.

"Doubt it. Guards wouldn't try to be quiet in here. Whoever is up there is trying to, and not doing too good a job of it." Shego crept forward and motioned the others to follow. "When I give the signal, we all charge them. Ready…one…two…" Her body tensed and she sprang forward, crying, "Now!" Both Kim and Jimmy leapt forward an instant behind her, and froze in amazement at the sight of their would-be antagonists. They were, in turn, staring in surprise at them.

It was Ron and Cindy. The cavalry had arrived, if just a little too late.

End of Chapter 13


	15. Chapter 14 Strangers and Friends

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 14:

The two groups stared at each other in shock before reacting.

"Shego?" Ron yelped, instinctively adopting a defensive stance.

"Ron?" Kim cried in astonishment.

"Possible?" Cindy blurted out, confused to find her with Shego.

"Cindy?" Jimmy called out, surprised to see her.

"And Brainiac makes five," Shego concluded wryly. "I guess that wraps up the introductions, so if no one has any objections, let's get going."

"Not so fast, lady," Ron objected. He moved to block her way, glaring at her suspiciously. "What are you doing and what's going on here?"

Shego looked disgusted. "Do we really have time for this?"

"We'll make time," Cindy insisted, siding with Ron. "Kim and Jimmy disappear without a word, and when we track them down we find them palling around with you and acting like it happens every day. Suspicious? I think so."

"Look, guys, Shego is right. We really don't have time for this," Jimmy replied. He strode forward and was startled when Ron adroitly flipped forward to block his way.

"Not so fast, half-pint," declared Ron. "We just left two Shego syntha-drones somewhere upstairs and find another Shego here. By my count at least one of them has to be a fake."

"Two," Cindy corrected him.

Ron thought about it and nodded. "Right," he agreed. "At least two have to be fake."

"Well, at least we know you're the genuine article," Shego commented. "Is this actually going anyplace?"

"Yes, it is," Ron assured her. "If those two drones looked like Shego and were fake, how do we know that any of you are the real deal?"

The question stumped Jimmy, Kim, and Shego. As odd as the idea seemed to them, they realized that Ron had a valid point. It was true that Drakken had always been interested in clones, syntha-drones, and similar replicants, and it was not beyond his ablities to duplicate any one of them. Kim and Jimmy looked helplessly at each other, trying to figure out some way to convince Ron and Cindy that they were who they are. Shego took a more direct approach.

"I don't have time for this!" she snarled, as her hands burst into emerald flame. "Move it, or lose it!"

Kim responded by diving forward and interposing herself between Shego and Ron. "Back off, Shego!" she snapped.

"And who do you think you're protecting?" Shego demanded. "How do we know that Drakken didn't make them just to slow us down?"

"A syntha-drone?" Kim lifted an eyebrow and gave Shego a skeptical look. "Of Ron?"

"Or Cindy?" Jimmy added incredulously.

Shego considered that and the green glow died away. "Yeah, that is kind of far-fetched," she admitted. "I mean, Drakken usually can't even remember the buffoon's name. Why in the world would he pick him to duplicate?"

"Hey! I am confident in who I am!" Ron protested angrily. "If Drakken can't remember who I am then that's his problem, not mine!"

"Could we maybe talk about this later?" Kim asked him.

Ron's anger turned to her. "Oh, yeah? And what about you? I mean, you just take off on a mission with someone else without even telling me. A really high opinion you must have of me!"

"That's not the way it happened, Ron," Kim protested.

While Ron and Kim were squabbling Cindy had stalked over to Jimmy and planted herself in front of him. "And why not me?" she demanded to know. "I'll have you know that my _tai chi_ and martial arts skills are considerable."

"Oh, please," Jimmy objected. "Everyone knows that in a conflict brains will prevail over brawn any day."

"Leave it to you to think that," retorted Cindy. "The martial arts are a harmonizing of the spiritual and the physical, a transcendent blending of mental clarity and physical conditioning. Only a big-headed, short-sighted egomaniac like you would think that brains are the only important thing."

The arguments were cut short by a short but piercing whistle from Shego. When the others turned to stare at her she put her fists on her hips and frowned. "Are we through here? It sure looks like everyone's satisfied that everyone else who they say there are."

Cindy scowled. "If he isn't the real Nerd-tron he's obnoxious enough to be."

"Ditto," Jimmy grumbled.

"Yes, I'm sure," Ron added bitterly.

"Me too," Kim finished, look unhappy.

"Good. Because we've burned up what could possibly be invaluable time that we could have spent getting to Drakken and shutting him down. Poindexter says we're on a tight schedule so I'm not going to repeat this. Zip it, move it, and stop wasting time!"

Shego turned and resumed her way down the corridor towards Drakken's lab. The rest followed behind her like a troupe of ducklings. "Touchy," Ron commented just loud enough for Jimmy to hear.

"Just bleach her hair and she could be a syntha-clone of Cindy," Jimmy muttered back.

"I heard that," Cindy hissed.

"What's with the new outfit, Ron?" Kim whispered, trying to change the subject.

"Got it from Wade," Ron replied shortly, still brooding.

Kim looked startled. "Wade? But Wade is –"

"I know, Wade's gone missing. But he left some kind of emergency computer program behind that contacted me, told me about this suit, and told me how to find you. The suit's come in pretty handy so far."

"Is that how you defeated the Shego drones?" Jimmy asked him.

"Hey, I was there, too!" Cindy put in irritably.

"Well, did you defeat the drones?"

"No," Cindy admitted.

Jimmy looked smug. "I didn't think so."

"Well, I didn't beat them either," Ron admitted quietly. "Cindy and I had some kind of flashback and when we came out of it both of the drones had kind of checked out on us."

Jimmy snapped his fingers softly. "Of course!"

"What, 'of course'?" Cindy asked.

"The temporal interphase. The syntha-drones didn't exist back during that particular moment in time. When the interphase hit there was nothing for the syntha-drones to merge with. That must have cleared their programming and rendered them inactive."

Kim looked worried. "Will they come back on?"

"I don't know," answered Jimmy. "It depends on what kind of restart sequence they have built in."

Shego stopped and held up a hand to halt the others. "All right," she murmured softly. "Drakken's main lab is just ahead. If he did anything with that temporal complosion device he would probably have done it here."

"Why here? Why not in the workshop where he was examining it?" asked Jimmy.

"Because the power mains feed into here," Shego explained. "This would give it as much power as Drakken could feed it. I have to admit – when he does something, he likes to do it big."

"Makes sense," Kim opined. "That is so Drakken."

Shego nodded. "Right. Okay then. Here's the plan. The princess and I will go in first –"

Kim interrupted, sounding annoyed. "Could you maybe use my name, since we're working together?"

"Okay, whatever," Shego conceded. "Kimmie and I will go in first and take out Drakken and whoever might be flanking him. The whiz kid will do whatever he has to with that temporal complosion device. And Blondie and the buffoon will…well, do something useful. Or just stay out of the way and try not to get hurt." Both Cindy and Ron growled at this last part, but decided that this was not the time or place to start an argument. "Everyone set?"

"Set," said Kim and Jimmy together.

"Yeah, whatever," Ron answered listlessly.

"Ditto," added Cindy.

"Okay, then – let's hit it!" With fists positioned and glowing a familiar green Shego burst through the door to the lab, followed closely by Kim and Jimmy and with Cindy and Ron lackadaisically bringing up the rear. Inside they found a large room filled banks of electronics and test equipment, a large and untidy desks strewn with papers, and half-opened filing cabinets. In the center of the room was a platform covered by a glowing dome supported by three columns along which thick cables and conduits were gathered. Next to this platform was an electronics console supporting the temporal complosion device which was connected to the console by an intricate mass of wires. No one seemed to be present, but Shego looked about warily. "Watch yourselves," she warned. "This could be a trap."

Kim glanced about the room and shook her head. "I don't think so. There aren't any good hiding places here. And since Drakken was expecting us to escape I doubt he'd have set a trap here." She crossed the room to the console and studied the temporal complosion device. "At least the comploder is here. It means Drakken was here. But where is he now?"

The others had entered and were examining the contents of the room. "This kind of looks like the matter conveyor platform on _Space Journey_," Ron observed.

"What?" asked Shego.

"_Space Journey_. It's a TV show about…well, going into space. Weird alien dudes, hot alien babes, cool gadgets, exciting adventures, outrageously expensive DVDs…"

Shego shook her head. "Never heard of it."

"What? How could you not? I mean, it's only been on TV for the past forty years!" Ron exclaimed. "Well, the past thirty-some years have actually been syndicated re-runs. But it's got a huge fan base. I mean, Spacies are everywhere!"

"I've only got cable a couple days ago, kid," Shego said. "And even if I hadn't, I like to think that I have a life. Well, between taking over the world, anyway."

Cindy finished her inspection of the equipment ringing the room. "I wonder where Drakken is. Is it like him to just leave things he stolen unattended like this? What could he be doing?"

"I think I know," Jimmy said. He had been investigating the papers on Drakken's desk and his voice sounded strained. "And I think that it's all my fault."

"What do you mean?" asked Kim. "What is?"

Jimmy held up the newspaper that had been lying on the desk. "You remember what he said about removing a thorn from his side? And how you wouldn't be there to stop him? He must have gotten the idea when I told him about how changing the past would change the present and future. That's exactly what he's planning to do. That's probably what he's doing now."

Kim came over to him and looked at the newspaper. The contents didn't seem very sinister. It appeared to be a society page of the Middleton daily newspaper, dated twenty years ago. As she studied the paper more carefully an item caught her eye and she smiled. "Hey! There's an article about my mom and dad's wedding!"

Jimmy nodded, looking somber. "Exactly. Drakken knows if there's no Mr. and Mrs. Possible, there won't be any Kim Possible to interfere in his plans."

Kim's mind rejected what Jimmy was suggesting. "What? That's crazy. Mom and Dad are, like, tight. He could never break them up."

"Not now. But if he's gone back in time, it's possible that he could keep them from getting together in the first place. No meeting…no marriage…no Kim."

Ron looked panicked. "What? No Kim?" He gestured frantically, as if trying to catch time itself. "That's not possible!" he protested.

"That's exactly what Drakken is hoping for," Jimmy replied. "The article says that they met at a school dance. What do you know about your parents getting married?"

"Well…" Kim thought about it. "My dad was in graduate school and my mom was in residency they first met. They met totally by accident and went to some dance that night. Mom says that it started out pretty bad, but by the end things really clicked for them. They started dating, one thing led to another, and that's pretty much it."

Jimmy frowned. "That's all you know?"

"Hey, I wasn't even around!" Kim said defensively. "Do you know how your parents got together?"

"Not really," Jimmy was forced to confess. "But I think it probably had something to do with ducks."

Kim had started pacing. "Wait a minute. Drakken and Dad went to school together. That means he probably knew about how they first got together. And that means he'd probably try to sabotage their first date at that dance."

"That's good enough," said Jimmy. He leafed throught the other papers on the desk and found what he was searching for. It was a flyer advertising the Middleton University start of the school year dance mixer, complete with the date and time. "It looks like the three of us are going to the dance."

"Three?" echoed Cindy.

"What do you mean three?" asked Ron.

"What I said," Jimmy replied. "Kim, Shego, and I are going back. You two are staying here."

"What!" Cindy yelled. "We just found you and now we're splitting up again?"

"It's necessary," Jimmy argued. "Shego knows Drakken's moves better than anyone. Kim knows her parents better than any of us. I'm the best chance we have of dealing with any time tricks Drakken may have up his sleeve." Cindy started to object but Jimmy cut her off. "And I'm responsible for all this. I have to do whatever I can to fix it." His voice softened a bit. "There's a chance that Drakken's henchmen or syntha-drones might try to interfere with the equipment if we leave it unguarded. I need you here."

"There is no way I'm letting Kim go into the past without me," Ron insisted, "and that's that."

"Jimmy's right, Ron," Kim told him. "I need someone here that I can trust to watch my back. I've always been able to count on you before." She looked into his eyes, searching deeply for the answer she needed. "What about now?"

Ron's look of determination crumbled to one of indecision and finally that of reluctant acceptance. He nodded, looking down at the floor. "Got your back, K.P.," he said hoarsely, his voice almost breaking. "You can count on me." They moved into each other's arms and embraced for a long moment. "I just wish part of me could be there with you."

"It will be," Kim assured him.

"Okay," Shego said briskly after fidgeting uncomfortably for a long moment. "If touchy-feely time is over, we'd best get on with it. Can you get this thing set up for us, Poindexter?"

"Just give me a few minutes," Jimmy assured her. "And for the last time, the name is Neutron. Jimmy Neutron." He busied himself with the temporal complosion device and several instruments scattered about the lab, referring from time to time to the schematics Drakken had left behind. After approximately ten minutes he wiped his brow and straightened up. "Done," he announced. "This should put us about an hour or so before the start of the dance. That should give us time to locate and intercept Drakken."

"How will you get back?" Cindy asked.

"That's your job. Drakken probably has a remote recall device but I've rigged a high-powered microwave link to the Kim-municator." He gestured to a pair of parabolic dishes flanking the platform's control console. "She'll be able to keep in touch with you and signal when we need to get back. This dial controls the power level of the link. When you get the signal, press these two buttons." He indicated the controls on the console as he spoke. "That will power up the comploder and initiate the recall sequence."

Cindy nodded. "How long should we wait?"

"We'll be progressing through sequential time at about the same rate as you. One hour there will be one hour here. If you don't hear from us in an hour, forget about us and stop the singularity. Just push these buttons here to switch the temporal lock to the location of the singularity, and then push this lever all the way up. That should destabilize the singularity and disperse it."

Cindy studied the console and committed the instructions and controls to memory. "Okay. But I still think I should –"

"Hey," Jimmy smiled, "I need someone here to watch my back, too."

Cindy said nothing as Jimmy headed towards the platform where Shego and Kim were waiting. "All set?" Kim asked.

"All set," Jimmy nodded.

"Then let's light this candle," Shego intoned. "Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed, seats and tray tables in the full upright position, yada-yada-yada." Jimmy and Kim stared at her and she stared back defensively. "What? You're the only ones who get to say that kind of stuff?"

Jimmy shook his head, rolling his eyes, and then looked at Cindy. "Activate," was all he said. Cindy, remembering the procedure Jimmy had told her to open the passage through time, pressed several switches. A low hum, constantly rising in pitch and volume, began to issue from the platform as a swirl of lights descended from the dome to envelope the three figures beneath it. After several long seconds of pulsing lights and sound the glow faded, revealing an empty platform. Cindy shut the console down without a word.

"Left behind again," Ron complained. "There's nothing worse than being left behind."

"I know," Cindy agreed absently. "But this time, they're the ones left behind. They're trusting us to get them back."

End of Chapter 14


	16. Chapter 15 Daze of Future Past I

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 15:

Doctor Drakken had indeed traveled into the past, intent on eliminating his arch-nemesis once and for all. After only ten minutes he began to think that, even if travel into the past was not forbidden by the laws of either Man or physics, it should be. Despite his best attempts to calculate the correct settings for the temporal complosion device his trip through time had been disorienting and it was some time before he felt well enough to continue with his mission. When he was able to go on he quickly verified from some discarded newspapers that he was at the right date, but quickly realized the he was several miles from where he needed to be. Consequently he was forced to take a bus, trying to remain as inconspicuous as a blue person in a lab coat and gloves could be and doing his best to fend off two persistent young teenagers who insisted on pestering him during the ride.

"For the last time, 'dudes'," he growled at them, "I look like a scientist because I really am a scientist. Second, I've never been in a music video, whatever that is. And finally, I've never heard of anyone named Thomas Dolby, whoever he is. So stop bugging me with your silly questions. Although," he mused, "the idea of blinding someone with science is an intriguing one. I suppose I could build some kind of ultra-bright wide-field laser. Once I get back to the future, that is."

The two teens looked at each other and snickered. "Right dude, whatever," said one, as he got up to leave.

"Totally," agreed the other as she joined him. "Good luck with getting your car recharged."

As they exited the bus, laughing, Drakken stared after them, totally baffled at what they found so amusing. Then he pushed the episode from his mind to concentrate on more important matters. The memory of every detail of this evening was etched clearly in his mind, and he had planned to the last detail exactly what he would do. Only two things nagged at him as he went over his scheme again. The first was not having Shego with him. He refused to admit, even to himself, that he missed her, steadfastly maintaining that he only wanted someone to assist him should any unforeseen complications arise. The second item was an irrational dread that Kim Possible would somehow appear to again frustrate him in his latest plan. It was nonsense, he told himself, but the many battles he had waged – or would wage – with her had thoroughly conditioned him to expect her to show up. Despite knowing that he had left her in the 21st century and that she had not yet been born, he still expected her to appear at any moment to challenge him once more with yet another of her sarcastic remarks.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he almost missed his stop on the outskirts of Middleton University. Alighting from the bus, he strode purposefully across the campus towards the student dormitories he remembered so well. It was now about 6:00 PM and getting dark, and the few people still on campus that he encountered didn't give him a second glance as he passed them. He successfully entered the dormitory through a rear entrance without anyone detecting him and made his furtive way up the back stairway to a specific room. Knowing exactly what he would find, he flung the door open, entered, and closed the door behind him in one swift motion to confront the startled occupant inside.

"Drew Lipsky," he announced with satisfaction.

"Yes?" the young man replied. He set down a screwdriver with which he had been working on a mechanical contraption and peered curiously at the stranger who appeared to know him. "Do I know you?"

"Not yet," Drakken replied with a sinister smile. "But trust me, you will. Now, listen to me very carefully…"

About that same time Kim, Jimmy, and Shego materialized on the outskirts of the campus. Jimmy had been more successful with his calculations of the target space-time coordinates and the passage through time had been unsettling, but not especially bad. Kim immediately activated her Kim-municator. "You there, Ron?"

"Reading you loud and clear, K.P.," Ron's voice came back. "How are you guys doing?"

"A little dizzy, but nothing bad," Kim replied. "We're going to split up now. If we run into anything we'll let you know. Until then, stand by and wait for our signal."

"Roger that."

"One question," Cindy's voice piped up. "What should we do if Drakken shows up here? Pull you back?"

"Negative!" Jimmy called out. "If he shows up there it'll be because he's sure that he's completed his mission. If that happens and you pull us back into the present Kim could cease to exist. We'll just have to make sure that he doesn't succeed. Do _not_ bring us back until we tell you. Clear?"

"Fine, okay," Cindy answered sourly. "I was just asking, is all."

"I know," Jimmy said in a subdued voice. "And Cindy?"

"Yes?"

Jimmy drew a deep breath. "Watch your back. There are a lot of henchman and maybe more syntha-drones still around there. You may want to close and bar the doors."

"Already done," came Ron's voice.

"Good," Kim commented. "Wish us luck. Over and out." She switched the device off and returned it to the pouch at her side and looked at the others. "Everyone clear on what they need to do?"

"Check," replied Jimmy. "I'll keep an eye out at the dance location. If Drakken shows up or I spot anything unusual, I'll keep things under control until you two show up."

"And I'll do some recon for Dr. D. around campus," Shego went on. "If I find him, I'll hogtie him and bring him to the rendezvous point."

"And I'll try to find my parents and keep an eye on them," Kim concluded. "I'm not sure exactly where my dad would be, but I'm pretty sure that my mom was in residency then. I mean now. I'll check the hospital out first and if I can't find her I'll try locating my dad." She held out a hand, palm down. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Jimmy said, placing his hand on top of hers, "although from a scientific viewpoint luck is merely the result of -" He broke off as he caught Kim's stern glare. "Umm…good luck to you, too," he finished meekly.

"Yeah, whatever," Shego said, as she laid her hand on theirs. "But if you ask me, luck is strictly for suckers. Give me stealth and guile any day."

On that note the three went their separate ways, with Jimmy headed towards the student union building, Kim moving towards the university hospital, and Shego blending into the shadows. Both Shego and Kim were familiar with Middleton and could find their way about even with the university grounds twenty years out of date, but Jimmy was forced to consult the directories posted about the campus to find his destination. Despite his worries about the delay he arrived well before the dance was scheduled to begin. The only ones there were the members of the decoration committee attending to last minute details, and the musicians who were setting up their music equipment. Several of them were practicing a few test chords and riffs on their instruments and grimacing at the results coming out of the amplification system.

"Excuse me!" Jimmy heard a voice call. As Jimmy looked about, the caller, a young women about twenty years old, called, "I'm sorry, but only dance committee personnel are allowed in here. You'll have to leave."

"Oh, yes. Right," Jimmy stalled. "I was just, you know, the band and all -"

"I understand," the woman replied, politely but firmly, "but rules are rules. We're still getting things ready here. We definitely don't want anyone getting hurt tonight."

_You and me both_, Jimmy thought. He turned to leave, wondering where he could possibly keep an eye on things, when a sound like angry cats fighting made him pause. The band members, thoroughly disgusted with the results of their tuning attempts, were pounding on the amplifier and muttering threats under their breath. An idea struck him, and Jimmy snuck a look at the woman who had ordered him to leave. Satisfied that she wasn't watching, casually strolled up to see what the musicians were doing.

"I'm telling you I tuned it," one member of the band was saying, brandishing his guitar for emphasis. "It's got to be in the electronics somewhere."

"There was nothing wrong with it this afternoon before we packed," another was arguing. "The instruments must be out of tune." He tapped his bass for emphasis.

The third member of the group, standing at an electronic keyboard, looked skeptical. "All of them? I'm betting that something got damaged when you packed the stuff up."

"Don't tell me how to handle the equipment!" the bass player shouted back. "I've never damaged anything in my life."

"Well, whatever's happened we have to fix it. We only have forty minutes before the dance," the lead guitarist argued.

The keyboardist gave him a sour look. "Dude, there ain't gonna _be_ any dance!" he said.

"Is something wrong here?" Jimmy asked innocently.

The three stared at him as if he were some alien from space. "Who are you?" the guitarist asked.

"My name is Jimmy. It sounds like you're having some problems with the equipment."

The keyboardist gave Jimmy a scornful laugh. "You figure that out by yourself? You must be the world's shortest genius."

Jimmy simply gave them a pained smile before replying. "You might say that," he said. "Could you give me a C major, please?"

The band looked at each other and shrugged. The player at the keyboard played the requested chord, flinching at the cacophonous discord that emerged from the speakers. "So, what do you think, Einstein?" He exchanged a mocking smile with the others.

Jimmy was not a musician, but he did understand wave theory and harmonics, had been an expert in electronic amplification circuitry since the age of three, and was able to mathematically assess the difference between the complex waveform that should have been produced and the waveform that had been produced. "Well," he replied casually, "from the massive crossover distortion I'd say that you've lost the bias on your Class AB intermediate amplifier stage. It could be a shorted coupling transformer or possibly a fried input biasing resistor, but I'd bet that one of your coupling capacitors has probably shorted through." He turned to go. "Well, good luck with that."

The smiles on the faces of the band had turned to looks of blank astonishment at Jimmy's discourse and as he started to leave they scrambled to surround him. "Hey, little dude," the guitarist said. "Not so fast. Did what you say actually mean anything?"

Jimmy nodded. "Pretty much."

"Could you maybe help us out and fix it?"

Jimmy appeared to consider it. The repair would be fairly easy to effect, but he needed to make sure that he could stay even after making it. "Well, I don't know," he said slowly. "I mean, I'm not even supposed to be here. I wouldn't want to get into trouble."

"Hey, as long as you're with us, you're cool," the bass player assured him. "Heck, you could even stay here on the stage the whole time we're playing tonight."

That clinched it. "Deal," said Jimmy. He turned the amplifier around, shut it off, disconnected the power plug just to be safe, and began loosening the fasteners that secured the back to the case. As the band looked on Jimmy burrowed into the circuitry, being careful not to touch any of the capacitors which might still have held a potentially lethal charge. He quickly located the component he was seeking and, after careful examination, convinced himself that it was, in fact, defective. He had hoped that the amplifier unit had a duplicate component that he could swap out without degrading the performance of the circuitry but saw that there was none. With a sigh he reluctantly removed his wristcomp, opened it, and carefully extracted a tiny component from its insides. "A perfectly good nucleonic condenser," he muttered under his breath. "I hope you appreciate this, Kim."

"What's that?" one of the musicians asked.

"Nothing," Jimmy called out. With infinite care he snipped out the faulty capacitor with his laser, delicately positioned the new part inside the case, and used his laser again to fuse it into place.

"Is that it?" the bass player, eying the tiny part doubtfully.

"Only one way to find out. Let's fire it up," Jimmy replied. He replaced the back on the amplifier, re-connected the power cord, snapped a few switches, and nodded to the band members. This time, when the instruments were tested, the expected tones emerged. The players looked at each other with broad smiles on their faces and gave each congratulatory slaps on the back. In the midst of this a hand fell on Jimmy's shoulder. For a split second he thought that perhaps Drakken had gotten the drop on him, but the next words he heard dispelled that fear immediately.

"I thought I told you that you had to leave?"

Jimmy turned to face the young woman, but before he could speak the lead guitarist spoke up. "You got it all wrong, babe," he said. "He's with us."

The woman looked confused. "He is?"

"Absolutely," the bass player affirmed. "He's our equipment manager."

The woman couldn't keep the skepticism out of her voice. "Your…equipment manager," she repeated. "Him?"

"Absolutely," the keyboardist replied. "An absolute genius at it, too." He nodded at Jimmy. "Seriously. I mean that."

"Well…I don't know…his parents…" the young woman faltered.

"You know," the lead guitarist said, "once in a while we have an open mike in our set. How'd you like to sit in for a song later? Had any experience? Got any favorites?"

Jimmy immediately vanished from the woman's mind and she blushed. "Well, I don't have any real experience," she replied. "But once in a while, you know, just with some close friends, you understand, I sometimes sing…"

Jimmy sighed, chose a strategic spot on the stage where he would have a good view both of the dance floor as well as the backstage and wings, and settled down to his vigil. He wondered how Kim and Shego were faring with their assignments as the woman continued to prattle on.

"…and I really like _Both Sides Now_, but _Killing Me Softly_ is probably my all-time favorite…unless maybe it's one of Karen Carpenter's songs…"

As the list went on and on his feeling of curiosity gradually gave way to one of envy. _Come on, Drakken_, he thought miserably. _Where are you?_

"…but I suppose you probably want dance music, don't you? Do you know anything by ABBA?…"

End of Chapter 15


	17. Chapter 16 Daze of Future Past II

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 16:

_All right, Drakken_, the nearly-invisible tracker thought grimly. _I know you're around here somewhere. Subtle, you are definitely not._ Since leaving Kim and Jimmy, Shego had relied on her instinct and skills to locate her quarry and that had led her to the residential housing part of the University. She had correctly assumed that Drakken would not have proceeded with his plan alone, and had further deduced that the only person he could rely on in this time period was himself. Even without the dance scheduled for that evening there were any number of typical Saturday night diversions, both on and off campus, which would have made finding a particular college-aged student nearly impossible. Shego, however, had the advantage of knowing Drakken, and this convinced her that she would find him passing the evening alone in his room, doing whatever it was that social misfits like Drakken did on Saturday nights. She had briefly tried to think like Drakken and figure out exactly what he might be doing alone on a normal date night but quickly gave that up, as it started to give her a headache and as well as the creeping willies.

Having identified the most likely location of her prey, Shego next employed her tracking skills to zero in on the exact location. There were several large dormitories on campus and Drakken might have lived in any of them while attending Middelton University. Typically Shego would have taken the most straightforward approach, which would have been to extort the information she needed from the front desk personnel, but the situation demanded stealth, despite the delays inherent in this method. She was sure that Drakken would have ignored the many pathways criss-crossing campus to take the most direct route to his destination, and her sharp eyes quickly found prints in the grass that matched Drakken's feet. As she followed them, she found herself wondering, _What is it with this guy's hand and feet, anyway? Did they stop growing when he was, like, ten years old or something?_

Shego was gratified to find that the path she was following indeed confirmed her chain of reasoning and led to a specific dormitory. The next step was to find Drakken's old dormitory room. As good as her tracking skills were, Shego knew she could not reliably follow Drakken's trail through the building and there was no time to check all the rooms. A pay phone she spotted outside the building gave her an idea. She quickly located the dormitory's main phone number in the phone book and searched for some money to make the call, but was frustrated when she realized her form-fitting outfit had no pockets and she never carried change because the noise could potentially jeopardize her many covert missions. With an impatient snort she ripped open the cover to the coin repository in a shower of green sparks, extracted some change, and placed the call.

"Middelton University, Prentice Hall, front desk," a bored male voice answered.

"Yeah," Shego said, her voice filled with the impatience she actually felt. "This is Pizza Shack Pasta and Pizza Emporium. We have an order of three large mushroom and anchovy pizzas for a…" She paused, giving the impression that she was consulting something. "…Drew Lipsky at the dormitory but the room number we have down is 1307."

"That can't be right," the voice told her. "We don't have a thirteenth floor."

"That's my point. What's the real room number of this Lipsky guy?"

"I'm sorry," the voice answered. "That information is confidential."

"I'm aware of that," Shego snapped, "but it's a busy night and I have a dozen other orders I have to get out."

"I told you -" the voice began.

"And _I'm_ telling _you_," Shego snarled, interrupting him, "that we have a thirty minutes or it's free guarantee, and if I'm late with any of my orders because I have to go to every room in that dormitory finding this Drew Lipsky then I'm coming over and getting the money out of you. Not only that, but I'll make sure that we and every other pizza place in town never deliver another pizza there again. You'll be calling Italy for take-out, Jack."

There was a pause before the front desk attendant asked hesistantly, "Even the front desk?"

"Especially the front desk!"

"All right. You win," the voice quickly assured her. "No need to be so testy. It's not like I owe that guy anything. In fact, the jerk still owes me five bucks. Okay, here's the room number. He's in room 719."

Shego smirked in triumph. "719. Got it. Thanks and have a pizzarific night." She hung up and checked the coin return slot from force of habit before remembering that the entire change depository was lying open. Heaving a sigh of self-reproach, she entered the dormitory and headed up the stairs to the seventh floor.

She encountered no one on her way up, just as she had expected for a Saturday night, but didn't relax her guard. Experience had taught her that overconfidence was the surest path to defeat, a lesson that Drakken's encounters with Kim Possible had driven home time and again. At the room she paused and listened carefully outside the room, and when she heard nothing she pressed her ear carefully against the door for a long moment. Still hearing nothing inside she tried the knob and found it unlocked. She mentally prepared herself to face anything and burst into the room.

As the silence had seemed to indicate, the room was unoccupied although the light was on. Shego frowned and considered her next move. She had been so intent on following Drakken to this building that it had not occurred to her to check for tracks leading away. Whatever Drakken had wanted with his past self he had gotten it and departed, apparently with his younger counterpart in tow. If so, they were probably on the way to the dance where Jimmy was waiting, or possibly to the hospital where Kim's mother-to-be was working and Possible was waiting. Shego felt that she should rendezvous with Kim or Jimmy but not knowing why Drakken would contact himself bothered her. She had studied Sun Tzu's _The Art of War_ and his admonition "Know your enemy, and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will be victorious a hundred times" had been one of her guiding principles in dealing with adversaries. Her every instinct told her that knowing the purpose of Drakken's visit to this room was essential to succeeding in this mission to the past.

Shego prowled about the vacant room like a restless cat, searching for something that might give her a clue. The room was littered with technical books, papers, mechanical and electronic assemblies, discarded fast food wrappings and containers, and other paraphernalia Shego expected a wonk like Drakken to have, but nothing that gave her any insight as to Drakken's purpose here. She decided that purely passive inspection was ineffective and started opening drawers and doors to conduct a more thorough search. None of the drawers she searched turned up anything useful or even interesting, but when she opened one of the closet doors a heavy object fell from an upper shelf and caused her to leap back instinctively. She eyed the object, wary of a trap. Then, not quite believing what she saw, Shego picked it up for a closer examination.

It was a mechanical head. By 21st-century standards it was crude and primitive in construction, but from what Shego could see it appeared to be complete. For as long as Shego had known Drakken he had exhibited a penchant for humanoid constructs, be they robots, drones, or clones. Robotics would be in keeping with Drakken's interests and Shego could believe that he had dabbled with it back in college.

"B-be-e-e…" the head said.

Startled, Shego dropped the device, which hit the floor with a thud. She prodded the head with her foot and stepped back when the head spoke again.

"Be-be..." it said. "Bebe."

_Bebe?_ Shego thought. "Hello?" she said. It was a ridiculous thing to say, but she didn't know what else to say to a talking mechanical head.

"H-h-hello," the head replied. "Are you b-b-boys ready for o-o-ur d-d-date?"

_Boys? Date?_ Shego tried to understand what the head was talking about. "What date?"

"D-d-didn't Drew t-t-tell you, tell y-y-you? We're the d-dates you w-w-ant-ed-d-d for tonight."

Shego sat down on an untidy heap that was, under the piles of rumpled clothes and pizza boxes, probably a bed and tried to think. She knew that Drakken had once been friends with Possible's father and several other now-prominent scientists while in college, but that he had parted company with them when they had ridiculed him about something. She couldn't recall the details, but she knew that it had something to do with some primitive robots he had built. It would have been just like Drakken to have built robots as dates for himself and his geek friends since his social skills were essentially non-existent. It would also be like Drakken to visit the sins of the father upon the daughter, and use those same robots to exact his ultimate revenge on Kim Possible and her father. Without another thought Shego dashed from the room, leaving the head talking to an empty room.

"W-wait!" it was saying. "D-d-on't you want a g-g-good-night k-kiss-s-s?"

At that moment Dr. Drakken and Drew Lipsky, accompanied by three robots, were on their way to the university hospital. "So the only real problem was a timing issue in the cognitive motivator circuit?" Drew asked.

"Precisely," was Drakken's reply. "As you saw, there was a race condition in the primary feedback circuit causing spurious restarts in the behavioral sequencing state machine. Fortunately it was a fairly simple fix. It's too bad we didn't have parts to fix all of the Bebes."

"Well, I needed the parts to construct a data interface module to connect my programmable calculator to my Commodore 64. I tell you, that company will change the world!"

"Yeah, well don't put all your life savings in their stock," advised Drakken.

Drew was still thinking about the Bebes. "I can't believe I didn't catch that timing problem. I don't think I would ever have found it if you hadn't helped me."

Drakken brushed it off. "Trust me, you would have, on Wednesday. But that would have been a little late."

Drew smiled at that. "True enough. So, my Bebes weren't good enough for those so-called friends to take to the dance? Well, if they don't take my Bebes, they don't take anyone! Even those soft…warm…nice-smelling…cuddly…"

Drakken growled impatiently. "Are you through?"

"What?" Drew started. "Oh. Yes. You know," he said, giving the blue man next to him a curious look, "you never did tell me why you're helping me like this."

"Trust me," Drakken grinned. "As long as you wreck this night for Possible, helping you is reward enough for me as well. It will be like killing two birds with one stone. In more ways than one," he chortled evilly.

"Are you sure that he'll be picking up his date at the hospital? I mean, what if she's still not well enough to go?"

"She's not a patient there, you dolt," Drakken grunted. "She's in residency there as a brain surgeon. If she and Possible get through this date they'll get married and have a teen-aged cheerleading crime-fighting heroine of a daughter who…" He broke off as he became conscious of Drew's odd look. "Anyway, she's too good for him."

Drew gave Drakken a doubtful look. "You seem to know a lot about Possible."

"Oh, yes," Drakken replied. "I've spent a good deal of time researching the would-be Dr. Possible. And nothing would please me more than ruining his life, especially when it helps mine so much more."

By this time they had arrived at the employee entrance to the hospital on the edge of the parking area and quickly found a concealed place from which to observe. "I don't see Possible," Drew whispered.

"Trust me, he'll be here," Drakken replied. "Are the Bebes ready?"

"Bebes are functioning per-r-rfectly," they robots replied smoothly at Drew's inquiry.

Drew nodded. "Good. When I give the word, carry out your instructions."

"Understood," the Bebes answered in unison.

As the group watched a somewhat stiff young man in a suit and tie approached the entrance, glanced at his watch, and began to pace nervously. From time to time he would stop, adjust his tie or smooth his hair, and glance at the door. This went on for a couple minutes when the door opened and an attractive young woman in a dress emerged.

"You remembered," the woman said.

"Could I possible forget? Doctor's orders, you know," the man replied with a laugh.

The woman giggled. "You know, I never knew that scientists had a sense of humor," she told him, smoothing the lapels of his jacket.

"Well, don't trust stereotypes," the man replied. "After all, people don't think brain surgeons are young and beautiful, either." He brought his arm, which he had kept out of sight, from behind his back to proffer a small bouquet of flowers to the delighted young woman. "I got this from the hospital gift shop," he explained.

"Hypo-allergenic flowers! How sweet!" the woman gushed.

"Okay, that's it," Drakken muttered. "Let's do this before I'm violently ill."

Drew had been scribbling something in a notepad. "Flowers…compliments…suit and tie…humor…" he mumbled to himself.

Drakken glared at him. "This isn't a field trip on successful dating techniques," Drakken snapped. "It's a carefully planned operation. Now let's move it!"

"Right, whatever," Drew answered as he tucked the notepad into his pocket. Before he could say anything else, however, he heard a strangled gasp.

"No!" Drakken whispered hoarsely. "It can't be! Not _her_! Not _here_!" Drew followed Drakken's gaze to a young girl, perhaps 16 or 17, who had come through the employee's entrance. "Initiate Operation Double Strike! _Now!_"

Not sure why the appearance of the girl had upset the older man so, Drew simply ordered, "Bebes! Carry out your instructions!"

"Bebes will obey," the robots announced and dashed towards their target.

Kim, distracted by finding her mother and father, only became aware of the Bebes when they were almost upon her. She attempted to dive clear but was unable to entirely avoid a savage blow from one of the robots and went sprawling. The other two Bebes closed in on the other woman, who backed away from her inhuman assailants. James Possible instinctively moved to interpose himself between the threat and the woman.

"Just what do you think -" he began, but got no further. One of the Bebes lifted him up and flung him bodily away to land with a heavy thud on the parking lot surface. The other Bebe seized the woman and prepared to return its struggling captive to its master but was stopped in its tracks by a well-time drop kick that spun it about, forcing it to release the woman in order to retain its balance. Kim landed lightly in a crouch to confront the robots as they regrouped.

"I think the lady already has a date," Kim told them.

"Bebes will tolerate no interference," the Bebes announced together. "Bebes – attack!"

The robots moved to assail Kim and although they were not as sophisticated as the future Bebes she had fought, they were still fast, strong and relentless. Kim faced the impossible task of fending off her attackers while simultaneously keeping an eye on both of her future parents. Her mother, torn between helping Kim, going to her date's assistance, and running, stood rooted with indecision. As she stood there a pair of powerful hands seized her and turned her about. She stared in confusion and fear at the unfamiliar, scarred blue face.

"Hello," he said. "It's so nice to finally meet you."

"Drakken!" Kim shouted, pausing for an instant to take in her mother's plight. It was a costly mistake. A powerful blow from behind struck her head, causing her to collapse on the ground. The world spun about her and she lost consciousness. From far away she could hear a voice shouting for the Bebes to withdraw and then for a long time there was nothing. She became aware of someone cradling her head and and speaking.

"Are you all right?" a voice asked.

Kim opened her eyes to see a concerned face looking down at her. "What? How…how long…"

Her assistant carefully helped her to her feet. "They just left. I'm sorry you got hurt. But thanks for trying."

"You're bleeding," was all Kim could say.

The man touched his forehead and examined the blood on his fingers. "I've had worse. There was this one time when I was working with an ultracentrifuge and…" He stopped, aware of what he was saying. "Sorry. Not the time or place, is it?" He sighed and shook his head. "I have to admit that I never really thought that a first date would end like this. I'd better call the police."

Kim shook her head. "No time. We have to find her. We have to…" A wave of dizzying pain swept over her and she nearly collapsed again.

The man was at her side in an instant, supporting her. "Hey, are you sure you're all right? Maybe we'd better get inside and have a doctor take a look at you. You look kind of pale."

Kim wanted to assure him that she was all right, but couldn't summon the strength to answer. She started to lift her hand to her head, but stopped when she saw it. In the yellowish glow cast by the parking area's lights her hand was wan and indistinct. But it was not just pale. It was translucent, like a faded photographic slide. With her parents' first date in peril, Kim was ceasing to exist.

End of Chapter 16


	18. Chapter 17 Daze of Future Past III

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 17:

Although Shego had not known exactly what she'd find when she arrived at the hospital, the news of Drew Lipsky's primitive Bebes had led her to expect a bad situation. Even so, finding Kim virtually incapacitated was far worse than anything she could have imagined. She had personally battled the teen heroine time and again and knew that anything that could take down her arch-nemesis had to be a serious threat. Her abrupt arrival startled the young James Possible, but Kim hardly reacted to her presence.

"All right, sitch me," Shego greeted them tersely.

"I beg your pardon?" was all the young man could reply. He had had a number of shocks already this evening, but the sight of Shego in her garish green and black outfit was still enough to unnerve him.

"What happened?" Shego rephrased slowly.

James Possible thought carefully and tried to reconstruct precisely what had happened. "I was meeting someone here tonight for a first date when these three…things…came out of nowhere and abducted her. This young lady tried to help, but unfortunately was injured." He looked worried. "I really think she needs a doctor."

Kim managed to shake her head. "Doctor…won't help," she got out between gritted teeth. "Have to…save…her."

"Save her? His date?" Shego asked.

Kim nodded weakly. "No past…no future…no Kim."

_This is so not fair_, Shego thought fiercely. _I finally have what I've always wanted within my grasp and now I have to stop it._ "We need Brainiac, Jr.," was all she said. "He might know what to do."

"No…no time," Kim gasped. "Only…a few minutes…"

"She sounds delirious," Kim's father commented.

"It's not the first time," Shego replied. She made a snap decision. "Okay. Which way did they go?"

The young man looked around in some confusion. "I think they went that way…no, wait a minute. It was between those two trees there…or maybe it was that tree there and that lamppost…" He turned slowly around, considering his surroundings and indicating the possible avenues of flight.

Shego snorted. "Great. You can't remember which way they went?" Getting only a helpless look from James Possible, Shego looked expectantly at Kim, who shook her head weakly. "Well, that pretty much sinks it, doesn't it?"

Kim slumped back. "I…guess so." Despite her distress she also made her decision. "Get Jimmy and…"

A pained shriek in the distance cut off Kim's words. Shego whirled, instantly getting the bearing of the cry. "That's Drakken," she announced. "I'd know that girly scream anywhere. Stay here!"

As Shego darted off into the darkness Kim used the young man as a support to fight her way to her feet, feeling the sweat beading on her forehead. "I'm…in this…too…" she panted. "Count…on it."

James Possible tried gently but firmly to hold her back and keep her still, but in vain. "You're in no shape to go anywhere. And there's nothing you or I can possibly do to help."

"Nothing's impossible…for a…Possible," she returned. She took a faltering step forward and nearly fell, but managed to take another step. James Possible hurried forward to support her just before she collapsed again. As she fell into the man's arms a feeling that he couldn't quite place came over him. He had never seen the girl before, but as he looked at her it was as though the past and future came together. Against his better judgment he straightened, lifting Kim easily in his arms.

"All right," he said. "I don't know why, but if it's so important for you to try this hard, I suppose can't do any less." He half-ran, half-jogged forward in the direction that Shego had taken, wondering what they would find and what they would do when they got to wherever they were going.

As he hurried through the dark he heard another shriek of pain and anger ahead, followed by what sounded like high-intensity energy discharges. Somewhere in the gloom ahead flickers of green light winked at him from out of the darkness. In the intermittent glow he could see dim silhouettes moving and weaving together, and as he drew closer he saw that the oddly-dressed woman had located the figures that had attacked earlier. She moved with a practiced skill that made each motion seem almost like a dance, but this was a dance in deadly earnest, in which neither side asked nor expected quarter. To James Possible's amazement the green lights he had seen before appeared to emanate from her hands. As he watched, one of the emerald bolts struck one of the robotic adversaries and sent a mechanical arm whirling through the air to land at his feet. It lay there smoldering on the grass.

"Come on!" the woman yelled. "You want some of this? You want a piece of me? You worthless rejects from a Radio Hut bargain bin! Show me what you got!" She whirled and knocked another of the Bebes back with a roundhouse kick before turning to tackle another.

Off to the side James Possible saw his would-be date struggling in the grip of a man who, in the dim light, appeared to be blue. Although he was much larger than his captive the man appeared to be having some sort of attack, slapping at himself with one hand while he struggled to keep his unwilling companions under control with the other. "Will you do something to help me?" he snapped to a younger man at his side. With a start James Possible recognized the younger man as none other than Drew Lipsky. It was then that he realized that the mechanical creatures the woman was fighting were Lipsky's prototype Bebes.

Drew ignored the other man, concentrating instead on coordinating the attacks of the Bebes against the elusive and deadly Shego. James Possible saw that Lipsky's strategy might actually succeed, as the robots were constantly evaluating Shego's moves and becoming much more effective in their own offensive and defensive maneuvers against her. It was also clear that Shego was beginning to tire and that her movements were becoming more sluggish. James Possible made his own decision and, gently laying the semi-conscious Kim on the grass, crept forward as stealthily as he knew how.

The Bebes had apparently finalized their tactics and carefully circled Shego who turned warily, sensing the trap. On one accord the robots leapt towards Shego with carefully timed and computed trajectories calculated to leave Shego open to at least one attack. Shego dispatched one Bebe handily and barely managed to disable the second through a superhuman effort, but knew that she could not possibly stop the third. She steeled herself against the third Bebe, hoping that she would be in a condition to launch a counter-offensive of her own following the robot's attack.

It never came. To Shego's surprise the Bebe stopped abruptly with its head tilted at a very odd angle and fizzling sparks coming form the joint at its neck. Then it pitched forward on the ground, revealing James Possible standing behind it holding one of the Bebes' mechanical arms like a baseball bat. "A little out of character for a scientist, isn't that?" Shego commented breathlessly.

The young man shrugged. "Sometimes," he deadpanned, "even a man of science will take up arms for a good cause."

The attack had been just as much a surprise to Drakken and Drew as it had been to Shego. In that brief moment of indecision the captive woman twisted around and launched an attack of her own. The straight right to Drakken's jaw had little effect, but the knee that came up at him from below was far more effective. He folded to his knees like in slow motion, like a snowman melting in the afternoon sun, and flopped over to lie helplessly on the ground. "Eep," was all he was able to squeak out.

Drew Lipsky, seeing his ally disabled, his Bebes out of action, and himself outnumbered three to one took the most sensible course of action he could. Turning without a word, he ran off, disappearing into the night like a passing shadow. _Possible!_ he thought savagely. _It was all Possible's fault this happened to me. But I'll get my revenge on him some day. If it's the last thing I do, I will make him pa…both him, and then, someday, his heirs! Be afraid, Possibles. Be very afraid…_

As Shego took Drakken in charge, James Possible walked over to his intended date. "Nice moves," he commented.

The young woman brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "One of the advantages of being a doctor. You get to know the strengths and weaknesses of human anatomy pretty well," she replied.

"I'm sorry this happened. I never expected that Drew Lipsky would pull something like this just because we laughed at his Bebe robots."

The woman looked surprised. "But that wasn't your fault."

"Maybe not, but still…I guess that this was probably the worst first date you've ever had."

The woman considered it. "Truthfully, yes. This has to have been the worst first date ever."

James Possible nodded. "I thought so. Well, I really can't blame you for thinking that." He sighed. "I guess you can't expect too much from a would-be rocket scientist. Maybe this whole dating thing isn't for me. A lot of famous scientists never got married, you know."

In the darkness not far away Kim stirred in a half-dream of pain and confusion as the threads of her existence continued to unravel.

The young woman considered the young man standing before her. Despite his words he had come to her assistance when she had needed it most. Without having to be told she knew that this was someone who would be at her side whenever she really needed someone. "Well, you did come after me. That was very sweet. Not many people would have." She suddenly looked concerned. "You're bleeding."

"What?" James Possible touched his forehead, which had started to bleed again. "Oh, that. That's just a scratch from before. It's nothing."

"Let me be the doctor." She gently brushed an unruly lock of hair off his forehead to briefly study the scrape before looking into his eyes. Her eyes, he noticed, were rather large and a fascinating shade of blue, and she in turn was careful to note his look. "You know," she said tentatively, "there is one good thing about having the worst date in the world."

"And what's that?"

She smiled. "They can only get better."

James Possible thought about it. "Does that mean you'd consider another date?"

She pretended to consider it. "Maybe. Let's see how this first one works out and we'll discuss it."

"That sounds fair." He smiled and offered her his arm. "The dance is about to start. Shall we?"

"Why not? I'm all dressed for it. And you wouldn't believe how rarely someone in residency has the chance to go to a dance." With a small laugh the two headed towards the student union, already oblivious to the others around them.

Shego, who had witnessed the proceedings with a mixture of wonder, revulsion, and scorn, pulled Drakken to his feet. "Okay, Doc. Let's get going."

"It's not fair," he whimpered, in a slightly higher tone of voice than normal. "It was all so perfect. It couldn't fail. It's not possible!"

"Haven't I ever told you," a voice Drakken had learned to despise, "that anything is possible for a Possible?"

Shego eyed Kim, who was standing before them and appeared perfectly normal. "You okay? Last time I saw you, you looked like you were at the eight count."

"Never better. I guess things worked out the way they were supposed to. I mean, Mom did say that the date started out terribly and turned out all right. It was actually the most memorable date of her life. I guess this was all meant to happen."

Drakken suddenly looked as though he were going to be sick. "You mean…your parents…I was the one who…?"

Kim's face was unusually thoughtful. "Apparently so. I guess your plot was what made this night one to remember and really brought them together. Without you, they might never have married and the whole Possible clan might never have been."

Drakken looked ready to cry. Shego looked at him. "Just one thing, Doc. What made you start shrieking like that? If not for that we probably would never have found you."

"How should I know?" was Drakken's bitter answer. "All I know is that something began poking and stabbing me. It was everywhere. I couldn't stop it."

"Poking and stabbing?" Kim repeated. "I wonder what that was all about?"

At that a small pink form scurried out of the darkness and up onto Kim's shoulder to spread its forelegs. "Tada!" it chirped.

"Rufus!" Kim cried. "Was all that you?"

The rodent nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh."

Kim squinted one eye at the naked mole rat. "Did Ron sneak you into my pocket when he wished he could send a part of him with me?" Rufus nodded. "I guess I really owe him one," was all she could say.

"If the Warm and Fuzzy Feel-Good Hour is over," Shego interjected, "we've foiled the bad guys and have a singularity about twenty years from now to fix. What say we round up the genius and get back to the future where we belong?"

"Good idea. Let me give Ron and Cindy a buzz." Kim pulled out her Kim-municator and activated the transceiver circuits. "Ron and Cindy, Kim here. We have Drakken and should be on our way back in a few minutes. Stand by to bring us back on our signal."

There was no answer and Kim gave Shego a worried look. "Maybe they stepped away for a minute to stretch their legs of something," Shego suggested. "Try again."

Kim did, with no success. "Nothing," she announced. "I've got a bad feeling about this. I don't think that Ron or Cindy would not answer unless something was keeping them from answering." She shook her head. "Something's wrong."

"Do you mean." Shego asked, "that we're stuck here in the '80s?"

"Not exactly," Kim replied absently. "It'll just take use twenty years to get back…if we're lucky."

Drakken asked the obvious question. "And if we aren't lucky?"  
Kim looked him squarely in the eye. "Then you, and I, and everyone and everything else we know will be sucked into a temporal singularity and have the rest of eternity to think about the dangers of time travel."

End of Chapter 17


	19. Chapter 18 Down to the Wire

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 18:

"Man, this tanks," grumbled Ron.

"Are you starting with Kim going off without you again?" Cindy asked him. "Or is it that you never stopped?" Thus far their vigil had been uneventful and Ron had been pacing restlessly ever since Kim, Jimmy, and Shego's departure. "Personally, the less that happens while we're waiting for the others to get back, the better."

"Actually, I was thinking about food," he answered. "I mean, we're stuck here and there's absolutely nothing to eat. No nacos, no chimiritos, no guacamacos…nothing! Next time I'll be sure to bring a Grande Grab Bonanza Bag whenever I'm infiltrating someone's lair. But now that you brought it up…"

Cindy looked alarmed and tried to fend off where the conversation was headed. "I didn't bring it up!" she protested. "I was just -"

"Okay," Ron went on, ignoring Cindy's objection. "Kim can do anything. And maybe that means I don't have to be there. But we're more than a team now. We're supposed to be an item. That kind of implies being together…a lot…you know?"

"It also means listening more than talking, sometimes," Cindy hinted.

"Absolutely," Ron agreed, nodding his head vigorously. "And I appreciate that you're listening. Now, we can both see how things are from Kim's side. So try to see it from my side, now. I mean, you're a girl, right?"

Cindy's wordless glare was answer enough for Ron.

"Oh, right. Right! You are. Not that I didn't notice that you weren't a girl…I mean that you _were_ a girl…that is…" He trailed off in his fumbling attempts to pacify Cindy. "Hey, it was a retractable question, okay?"

"You mean 'rhetorical'," Cindy stonily corrected him.

"Okay…yeah…I should know that word…" Ron thought for a few moments and Cindy let him, glad of the silence. "Would it have anything to do with that butler in _Gone With the Wind_?"

This seemed like a good opening to Cindy to stop the diatribe. "Frankly, Ron," she answered, "I don't give a -"

"Right. You are so right. Not important right now," Ron went on, and Cindy dropped against the platform's control panel in defeat. She was used to dealing with Jimmy and, clueless as he often was, he was smart enough recognize her warning signs. Ron was not. "The thing is, even before we were an item we were a team. Doesn't my trying to measure up to her show that I'm serious about it? Shouldn't Kim appreciate that a little more?"

Since she couldn't avoid it Cindy decided that she might as well participate in the discussion. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, she went with it because it was working out the way it was and that you didn't need to change that way? That maybe how you were is how she wants you to be, mostly?"

"Mostly?"

"Well, my mom is always telling my dad something about leaving the seat up. But did you ever think that she wants you because of who you were all those years?"

Ron considered that. "Not really. If that's what she really wanted, why did it take her so long to realize it? Why go through all the Josh Mankeys and Eriks and who knows who else if I wasn't her last choice? She only decided that we should get together when she decided that maybe there wasn't anyone else and I told her how I felt. I don't want to go through this just because there was no one else. I want to be her first choice, not her last chance."

"Well, if you felt that way about her, why did you take so long to say something?"

Ron looked miserable. "Because she was my friend. My best friend. I wanted her to be happy. And she was happy with other guys."

"So it was other guys she was best friends with all those years? Going on missions around the world? Spending time hanging out in Buenas Noches?"

"'Bueno Nacho'," Ron corrected her.

"Whatever. Look, Ron, just because it took Kim a while to come around doesn't mean that you weren't what she wanted. All it means is that maybe she needed to understand what was really important to her. When you come right down to it, any successful relationship is the last choice someone makes, whether it's with the first person they picked, or the hundredth."

Ron's face became uncharacteristically thoughtful, and Cindy saw that she might have gotten her point across. Before she or Ron could say anything more there was a loud, dull thud and the floor beneath them shook slightly. "Did you drop something?" Ron asked.

Cindy shook her head. "Aside from a few hints to get you to stop ranting and raving, no."

"Funny. That sounded like something heavy hitting something. Kind of like a -"

The thud came again and this time there was no mistaking where it had come from. The door to the room they were in shook heavily and bent inward slightly.

"A battering ram?" Cindy finished. She looked worried. "It looks like we're going to have some company in here real soon."

"Maybe we should contact the others?"

Cindy glanced at the microwave antennae and shook her head. "They have their own problems. We can handle this." _Like I'm really going to call Neutron for help_, she thought. She looked about for something to improvise as a weapon.

Ron was also searching for something with which to defend themselves and settled on two metal rods, about an inch in diameter and the length of baseball bats. He tossed one to Cindy who hefted it, twirled it, and tested its balance. She had had very little training with weapons but decided that using the rod was still better than fighting unarmed. She and Ron deployed to either side of the door to flank the intruders and force whoever it was to split their forces when they entered.

"Bring it on," said Ron, spinning the rod easily. "Kim-mando Ron is ready."

A couple more heavy impacts hit the door and it burst open to reveal the two Shego drones, hefting a large beam between them. Now that the door was smashed and hanging open, they dropped the heavy metal member to the ground with a metallic clang and advanced menacingly on the defenders. "Intruders located," the drones announced simultaneously. "Commence termination."

"You sure you don't want them to wait a few more minutes, Ron?" Cindy called out as she backed away.

Ron didn't reply, instead vaulting forward and swinging fiercely on his opponent as it darted to one side. He tucked into a ball, rolled lightly to his feet, and brought the rod up in time to parry the drone's glowing green swipe at him. He counter-attacked, forcing the drone backwards with lunges and swings of the rod. "Man, this is awesome!" he exulted.

"Glad to hear it!" Cindy called in annoyance. Thus far her size, agility, and improvised weapon assisted with a heavy dose of adrenalin had allowed her to hold her own against the syntha-drone, but any offensive moves were out of the question. "Maybe if I had a super suit too I'd feel the same way!"

It was definitely not the thing to say. The drone confronting Ron paused and the cold green eyes scanned over him as if assessing the situation in light of the new information. "Opponent's combat abilities enhanced by cyber-augmentation suit. Adjusting primary target from Ron Stoppable to augmentation suit."

"Hey! Hey!" Ron spluttered as the drone adjusted its stance slightly. "It's called a Kim-mando suit and it's supposed to be a secret!" He rolled aside to dodge a blow. "And it's just a loaner! I'm not even sure if it's washable!"

Ron now found himself on the defensive, as the drone launched a series of determined attacks designed not to incapacitate Ron, but to damage the suit he was wearing. In a desperate attempt to keep his wondrous costume from harm Ron concentrated entirely on avoiding his adversary's attacks rather than initiating any offensive moves of his own. Seeming to realize this, the drone manipulated Ron with a number of feints, punches, and kicks that opened his guard and left him vulnerable to a final, devastating strike. A glowing hand slashed across his chest like the talons of some monstrous predator to lay open the intricate mesh of fabric and circuitry, even though through some miracle Ron himself was spared any injury. Sparks sputtered and fizzled from the gash as Ron felt the suit go limp on his form.

The drone's face, although emotionless, seemed to show some hint of triumphant pride. "I know your parameters, Ron Stoppable," it said. "I can anticipate your every move. You cannot win."

_She's right_, Ron thought as he backed away in trepidation from the advancing syntha-drone. _Without the suit, I'm nothing. I'm just…_

"Ron Stoppable," a voice called.

Ron looked about, feeling as though he were falling asleep, or perhaps waking up. The voice seemed familiar, but he could place neither it nor its source. In the midst of this he felt mildly surprised to see that his artificial opponent was not moving. Neither were Cindy and her adversary near the temporal complosion platform. "Who's that?"

"Ron Stoppable," the voice repeated. "The world is in peril. Once again, we at the Yamanouchi School depend upon you to save us."

"Master Sensei?" Ron asked. "Hey, I'd like to help, but I'm kind of busy right now."

"We know. We have sensed the great disturbance in the time stream. There is not much time left to stop the catastrophe that is coming. If you fail now, all is lost."

"But Master, I can't beat this thing!"

"If you fail now, all is lost," the voice repeated. "Your friends will never return, and existence itself will crumble."

"If the suit were working, I'd have a chance," Ron protested. "Or maybe if I had the Lotus Blade. I don't suppose you could loan it to me, maybe?" he added hopefully.

"You have studied here," the voice remonstrated him. "The victory is in the hand, not the blade."

Ron shook his head. "But I'm not good at this!" He hung his head. "Kim was right. She's the hero, not me. Without her, I'm nothing."

The voice became stern. "The virtue of the arrow is not in the strength of the bow. It finds the mark in being true to itself. So must it be with you. Embrace the essence of Ron Stoppable."

"I don't understand!" Ron wailed.

"Know your enemy, and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never know defeat."

Ron blinked. "Huh?"

The voice was almost a sigh as it faded away. "The way to true victory lies within. I have faith in you, Ron-san…"

The realization of the speaker's identity hit Ron like a proverbial sack of bricks. "Yori?" Ron stood motionless as those around him, confused at what he had heard. _Know your enemy, and know yourself?_ As he pondered this he became aware that his surroundings were once again coming to life, like an old movie slowly starting up. He faced his opponent, still puzzled by what the voice had been trying to tell him, but no longer afraid. Come what may, Ron decided he would not be a coward. Calling upon the mystical monkey force with which he had been imbued he swung and spun his rod in a dizzying sequence of moves intended to distract and confuse his opponent. His maneuvers worked, for the Shego-drone slowed its approach but adjusted its stance in anticipation of his impending attack.

_Know your enemy..._

In a move that was as much inspiration as desperation Ron sprang forward and whirled about, bringing the rod around in a great, two-handed arc towards the drone. The syntha-drone, analyzing his attack, anticipated his intent and timed its own counterstrike to knock the rod from Ron's arm as he completed his swing and then deliver a final blow to Ron himself.

_…and know yourself…_

The drone's first blow, meant to disarm Ron, met only air. In the last second Ron had passed the rod from his right hand to his left, bringing his right arm around to finish the arc he had begun. As the drone's swipe missed the empty hand by scant inches, Ron used his left hand to drive the rod into the drone's chest with all the force he could put behind it.

_…and in a hundred battles you will never know defeat._

The rod ripped through the outer sheath of the drone, passing through it and tearing a second gaping hole in its back. The drone convulsed and began to shrivel as the blue She-goo, no longer contained, poured through the holes. With a final shudder it settled into a shapeless mass on the floor, leaving Ron panting but victorious.

"Boo-yah!" he exulted. "Now that's what I'm talking about! I guess there are some things about Ron Stoppable that can't be anticipated, aren't there?" He turned to assist Cindy, but saw that it wasn't necessary.

Cindy, in the meantime, had been battling her opponent, neither of whom had been able to obtain a clear advantage. But Cindy knew that it was only a matter of time before one of the drone's energy blasts or carefully delivered punches found its mark, or she would succumb to fatigue. She had been able to hit the drone with her rod several times, but each time the blow seemed to have no effect on the syntha-drone's tough outer covering. To make matters worse, over the din of battle, she thought she could hear Kim's voice calling over the microwave link. Perhaps Ron had been right to signal the others. At the least they might have some idea.

As she thought it over a wild idea of her own came to her. Keeping a careful eye on the location of the platform's control panel, she deliberately gave way before the onslaught of the drone and worked her way around the platform to put the drone between herself and the panel. She fell back a few more steps, and then, with a loud yell, rushed forward and flipped up and over the drone to land next to the panel.

"A foolish manuever," the syntha-drone observed as Cindy straightened. "You waste your energy on useless acrobatics rather than in a constructive attack. You do not know the rudiments of combat."

"Maybe not," Cindy agreed as the drone approached her, "but I do know what happens to a hot dog in a microwave." Just when the drone reached the critical spot Cindy spun the power dial for the microwave link all the way over, boosting the power to maximum.

What happened next was both gratifying and unsettling. The syntha-drone began to jerk and twitch uncontrollably as the powerful electromagnetic energy passed through its body and disrupted its complex control systems. At the same time, its form began to swell and distend as that energy, absorbed by the She-goo and converted to heat, caused the substance inside expand as it changed first to a liquid and then a gas. Sounds of bubbling and hissing came from the ballooning figure until, without warning, it exploded and scattered azure bits of She-goo over most of the lab just as Ron turned to assist her.

"That was totally nasty," commented Ron, wiping some of the mess off his face.

Cindy nodded. "But worth it." She turned to the control panel. "I think Kim was trying to call. I think they might be ready to come back. Or maybe they're in trouble and need help."

Ron was sniffing. "Do you smell something burning?"

"You mean like syntha-drone Shego?"

"No. I mean like…I dunno…wiring or something."

Aghast, Cindy spun the power dial back down to its original setting. "This might be bad," she confessed. "I didn't stop to think about what would happen to the transceiver circuit at maximum power. I might have burned out the microwave link." Panicked, she pressed the transmit switch and called, "Kim? This is Cindy. Are you there? Hello? Is anyone there?"

There was no answer. In response to Cindy's bleak stare, Ron asked the obvious question. "So now what?"

After considering the various alternatives Cindy found herself giving him the obvious answer. "I don't know," she admitted. She looked at her watch and saw that the hour was nearly up. "And we're almost out of time."

End of Chapter 18

Author's Notes:

A couple readers have asked if I'm associated with D.N.A. Productions or otherwise involved with the official production of _The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron_. As much as that would be a dream job for me, I'm not. I'm just another fan fiction author who loves the premise of the show enough to want to put out a quality story from time to time. Apparently I sometimes succeed although I can't please everyone.

For those who don't really like the stories I have to say that my viewpoint of the show differs somewhat from the opinions of others. Jimmy is a genius, but that this is more of a springboard to finding out more about him and the other characters through their reactions to each other and the situations his genius gets them into and out of. The same is true of Kim and Ron. In this story I wanted to give the "second stringers" a chance to really show what they were capable of on their own, even if it was behind the scenes while the main characters were handling the main crisis, and use that to help define how they really stood with their counterparts. Hopefully by this point no one will be surprised to find that Shego is one of those "second stringers". I've always thought that, as a henchman, she didn't get the sort of recognition she really merited. Anyone who can personally go toe-to-toe and _mano a mano_ with Kim Possible time and again has to be top drawer to stay in the game.


	20. Chapter 19 Decisions

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 19:

As much as Cindy was used to having her way, being in charge of an impossible decision was not to her liking. Ron's suggestions and attempts to help weren't improving the situation or her temper.

"Why not just bring them back anyway?" he asked.

"If I did, and they hadn't fixed things, Kim might not exist when we brought them back. That's what Neutron said."

"Then why not shut down that black hole thingie and then worry about bringing them back?" he asked. "At least it would buy us time."

"Because if I changed the time lock to the singularity I don't know how to lock onto the others again," she snapped. "They'd be trapped in the '80s forever. It would be like having your TV stuck on one of those stupid rerun channels."

"But we'd have Wade to help us. I'm sure that he could get this time thing to work."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not sure what all Drakken did to this but I'd bet he didn't leave any notes for Wade to figure it out very quickly." Her expression changed from irritation to misery. "And I don't want to wait until Neutron is over thirty before I see him again. Not," she added quickly, "that I really care about seeing him at all, that is."

The idea of seeing Kim twenty years older gave Ron pause as he thought about it. "Oh, man. My girlfriend would be almost as old as her mother. That is so sick and wrong! Although," he went on thoughtfully, "when I was about six, I thought Mrs. Dr. P. was kind of -"

"What are you babbling about?"

"Nothing," Ron answered quickly. "Well, can't we go back to them, see what the situation is, and then come back again?"

Cindy glared at him and pointed to the control console. "Do you know where the redial button is on this thing? All we'd do is end up spending the next twenty years or so with them catching up with where we should be and being nostalgic about stuff that wouldn't even have happened yet."

Ron nodded in reluctant agreement. "Living in the past would so not rock." He shrugged his shoulders, defeated. "So, what do we do?"

"I already told you. _I don't know._ What would _you_ do?"

With the weight of the decision shifted to him Ron fidgeted uncomfortably. On paper the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few or the one, but in practice that axiom didn't sound quite as convincing. "Kim has saved the world more times than I can count," he finally answered. "If it came down to choosing between her and the world, I don't think she would hesitate picking the world. I don't know about Jimmy, but I think he'd do the same. What would they do if they were here?"

"If they were here we wouldn't have this problem," Cindy grumbled, not willing to be reasonable. "But…I guess your right." She turned to the control panel and prepared to reset the coordinates of the temporal complosion device and trap their friend in the past, raging inwardly. _That idiot Neutron_, she fumed. _If only he'd told Ron how to use the time device I wouldn't be the one who had to –_

She froze as that thought hit her. Jimmy hadn't told Ron how to use the device. Why hadn't he? _I need someone here to watch my back, too_, he had told her. Why had he said that? To keep her here, safe from possible danger? As pleasant as that thought felt she was sure there was more to it. Jimmy could have programmed this machine to disrupt the singularity at the specified time if he had wanted to. Instead, he had left her here with the responsibility and the decision. Why? To torment her with a decision like this?

No.

He trusted her to do the right thing.

But what was the right thing?

Whatever it was, she decided, it was something that had to do with something that only she, and not Ron, could know and could factor into the equation. Something, she was certain, that would be beyond any doubt. She lowered her hands, leaving the controls untouched.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked her, surprised. "I thought that we had to shut down that time thing!"

Cindy gave him a strange look. "We'll wait for the others."

"But we can't bring them back! You said that yourself!"

"No. We can't." Cindy shrugged, and despite having placed the entire time stream at risk with here decision felt curiously lighthearted. "But he'll find a way. Somehow."

On the way to the dance Kim had tried, without success, to contact Ron and Cindy. She finally admitted defeat and holstered the Kim-municator in its assigned pouch with a grunt of annoyance. "Nothing," she announced. "Either the communication link is down, or…"

"Or?" Shego prompted.

Kim heaved a sigh. "Or maybe Drakken's henchmen got the drop on them."

"Yes!" Drakken gloated. "My _loyal_ henchmen will take care of your companions."

Shego nearly laughed at that. "Them? Are you kidding? Once they shut down for the day they stay shut down. You can't even get half of them to get up on time."

"Not all of them," objected Drakken.

"Oh, please," returned Shego. "You can't be talking about Commodore Puddles."

"What about the Shego drones?" Kim asked.

Drakken clutched at that possibility. "Yes! What about them?" he taunted. "Unlike some traitors I know, they'll follow their orders without question."

"Hey!" Shego snapped, thrusting a fist under Drakken's nose. "I'm still way cranked about you're building those things in the first place, so I suggest you zip it!"

As Drakken subsided Kim shook her head. "Ron and Cindy got past them before. But from what they said it was almost a fluke. I hope they're all right."

They reached the student union and joined the throng that was pressing forward into the dance area. As they did so Kim caught sight of James Possible and his date just as they saw her. The young man slapped his forehead and looked stricken. "I am so sorry," he fervently apologized as soon as they were within speaking distance. "I don't know why, but in the excitement I forgot all about you. How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"Fine. Just great," Kim assured him. "How are things with you?"

"Well," James Possible confessed, smiling at his date, "it's going pretty well. I'm no fortune teller, but something tells me that this might just work out. I mean, really work out."

"For some reason, I feel the same way," the woman at his side added.

"Well, I had a feeling about you two," Kim smiled back. "Best wishes if, well, this turns out to be the real thing. You know."

"Thanks. Well, the dance is about to begin. See you around, I guess."

"Oh, you will. Just not as soon as you might think."

Kim turned to go and turned back at the man's call. "I'm sorry, but I never got your name," he said.

"My name? It's Kim. Kim Poss…umm…" Kim caught herself before blurting out her last name and tried to think of a convenient and convincing alias.

"Kim Possum?" the James Possible repeated. "That's an unusual name."

"Yeah," Kim fumbled. "Yeah, it is. You should meet my brother Stew, sometime. Well, gotta go!" She turned and hurried off before she could be subjected to any other potentially dangerous questions. The man and woman stared after her.

"An interesting girl," he said. "Somehow I get the feeling that she can do anything."

"And such a nice name," the woman responded. "If I ever have a girl, I think I'd like to name her that."

"Possum?"

She punched him gently on the shoulder with a laugh. "No, you goof," she laughed. "Kim. Or Kimberly." She laughed again. "You are such a kidder. As though anyone would seriously think of giving a girl a ridiculous name like Possum!"

The two moved towards the dance floor, with James Possible shaking his head in bewilderment. "I don't think it's that ridiculous," he said to himself.

Kim caught up to Shego, who had strong-armed Drakken to the stage where Jimmy had been waiting. He looked relieved to see them. "I see you got him. Is everything okay with your parents? Any problems?"

"So not the drama," Kim replied easily.

"Aside from the usual histrionics," Shego added, indicating Drakken.

"Good. Then let's get going."

Kim's face told Jimmy the situation before she had even spoken. "Some drama there," she told him. "We can't contact Ron or Cindy and ask them to bring us back."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe the communications link is down, maybe something happened to them. Whatever the sitch is, we can't communicate with them. So how do we let them know to bring us back?"

Jimmy began pacing the way he usually did when he had a serious dilemma on his hands. He wished that Goddard were here to provide some options. "This is so not good."

"An I.Q. of 200-plus and that's the best you can do?" Shego commented.

"Give him a chance," Kim told her.

Jimmy didn't seem to notice. "Well, we're in the past. If we could get to where Drakken's lair is going to be we could leave a message for them to find in twenty years or so."

Shego shook her head. "Well, that's out. Right now the area where that lab will be is nothing but solid rock right now. There won't be any way to leave a message in there for another twenty years or so. And more likely than not Drakken or someone else will find it before the kiddies do."

Jimmy snapped his fingers. "Drakken!" he exclaimed.

"Who? What?" Drakken asked. "What 'Drakken'?"

"Leaving Drakken in solid rock," Shego mused. "Now, that's an idea."

"No," Jimmy said with some impatience. "He must have brought along some way of getting himself back. We can use his recall device."

Kim planted herself in front of Drakken. "Well?" she demanded.

"Recall…device…" Drakken stalled. "Could you tell me what it looks like?"

Her patience with him already exhausted, Shego grabbed Drakken by the throat and spoke in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "Well, gee. That is a poser. I know. How's about I pull various body parts off until I find something that you think looks like one?"

"You wouldn't," the evil doctor sneered.

"Okay, have it your way," Shego snarled as one of her hands lit up. "Nurse, restrain the patient. And skip the anesthetic."

Confronted with Shego's menacing disposition, Drakken wilted. "You'd…you'd really do that?"

"When I woke up this morning, it was not my plan to take twenty-some years before getting to bed again," she scowled. "If I have to wade through two decades of bad fashions, bad hair styles, the Macarena, country line dancing, and the dot-com fiasco it will be over your dead body!"

Drakken appeared to take these things into accound. "Good point," he conceded. "Okay. You win." He reached inside his coat and removed what looked like Rube Goldberg's insane conception of a combination remote control and cell phone. Kim held out her hand for it and he reluctantly brought it forward as though to give it to her, but at the last moment he dropped it to the floor and brought his foot down on it, scattering pieces of plastic and electronic components across the floor. "Woopsie!" he said in mock sorrow.

Shego was livid, or as livid as her pale green complexion would allow. "That's it," she choked out. "I'm going to kill him!" She was thwarted in her efforts by Kim holding her back while Jimmy picked up the shattered remains of the recall device.

"Why?" he asked. "Why strand yourself twenty years in the past like this?"

Drakken chortled and rubbed his hands. "Isn't it obvious? In the 21st century I'm just a run-of-the-mill evil genius. But back here, I have a twenty-year head start on everyone else. I know what stocks will succeed and when. I know what inventions will succeed and fail. With the information I possess, I can do what I've always wanted to do. I can rule the world!"

"That will be pretty hard from six feet under, Doc," Shego spat.

"Oh, come now, Shego," Drakken told her in a soothing voice. "There's plenty of pie to go around. Knowing the future will give you more opportunity here than you could ever have just living in the future. Is it really so bad?"

In spite of the burning fury she felt at Drakken's treachery, Shego couldn't help seeing things from Drakken's point of view. It was true that someone knowing what the next two decades would bring would have an almost infinite advantage over anyone else. As she dwelt on this Jimmy spoke up. "You're forgetting a couple things, Drakken."

"And those are?" he asked.

"First, we don't know how the future is going to turn out. Everything from this point on is totally indeterminate. That's why you didn't remember failing when you first decided to try breaking up Kim's parents twenty years ago. Until we return to the future this past hasn't happened yet. Anything we do will change the way things are going to turn out."

"The brainiac has a point, Doc," Shego admitted. "If we buy up all the hot tech stocks, won't that change some major business decisions and affect how things turn out in the future?"

"No. Maybe. I don't know," Drakken replied, refusing to be put off. "What's the second thing?"

Jimmy pointed in a random direction. "That singularity is still out there. Unless we get back in time to stop it there's a good chance that everything past, present, and future will cease to exist. By smashing the recall device you've not only trapped us in the past, you've jeopardized the entire time stream!"

Kim had been collecting the scattered and shattered pieces as the others had been talking and now brought them to Jimmy. "I think that's all of them. Is there any way you can fix it?"

Jimmy surveyed the ruins and looked doubtful. "Maybe. I don't know. It looks like a lot of the components here are totally ruined."

"There must be parts here you can replace them with," Kim pressed.

"Possibly. The technology of this time is pretty primitive. You're asking me to work with tools that are little better than stone knives and bearskins." As he surveyed the pieces he shook his head. "From the power rating of these parts I don't know that we could find parts that would generate a signal strong enough to get through before the circuits burnt out. We'd have to be a lot closer."

"How close?" Shego asked.

Jimmy did some quick calculations in his head. "Allowing for a safety factor, we'd have to be within two or three years of our target date."

"Great!" Shego muttered. "Waiting two or three years less will be a big help."  
Drakken gave them all a triumphant smile. "It looks like it's my way or…no, strike that. It's just my way," he observed. "Anyone interested in joining with me in filing a patent for a graphical user interface operating system?"

"Better do it fast, Doc," Shego deadpanned. "Something tells me we don't have a lot of time."

"No," Jimmy said in a strange tone that made the others stare at him. "We don't have a lot of time. And that's what's going to get us out of here."

End of Chapter 19


	21. Chapter 20 Interlude

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 20:

The responses from Kim, Shego, and Drakken to Jimmy's pronouncement were nearly simultaneous.

"Come again?" asked Kim.

"Say what?" Shego put in.

"Huh?" grunted Drakken.

"You remember what I told you about those interphases we experienced and how they were with events in the time stream that were unstable because they all involved time travel? Well, we're in one of those unstable events now. If I'm right, we'll be pulled right through the Cindy and Ron's times towards the singularity. Once we're close enough we can communicate with them and have them recall us." Jimmy looked around him. "I just need to round up the parts I need to fix this thing."

"The electronics labs in the engineering building would probably be the best place for electronic components," said Kim. "I can get in and get whatever you need."

"That sounds more along my line of work," Shego observed.

Jimmy shook his head. "It would probably take too long for either of you to identify and locate what I'd need. Plus, I can use one of the lab's workstations to rework the recall device while I'm there, so I'd better do it. I can get in using my watch laser so I shouldn't have any problems." He looked at his watch. "I'd better hurry. If I'm right, we'll be nearing interphase pretty soon."

Neither Kim nor Shego could deny the logic of Jimmy's argument. "So, what do we do while we're waiting?" Shego wanted to know.

"Well, it's a dance. Have fun. But keep an eye on Drakken. And be careful what you do. We don't want to do anything that will disrupt the time stream." Jimmy waded into the mass of dancers and was almost immediately lost to view. As he disappeared the dance song ended – somewhat abruptly, Kim thought. As she overheard the conversation of the band members on the stage above her she began to feel uneasy.

"Dude, I can't believe you did it again!" the keyboardist was saying.

"I thought I had it," the lead guitarist replied in a croaking whisper.

The bassist shook his head angrily. "Just great, man. You do the leads. What are we supposed to do now? You go beyond your range and throw out your voice and it'll take nearly a half hour before you'll get it back again."

"Instrumentals," the keyboardist suggested.

The bass player scoffed. "The whole dance? In case you forgot, we're being paid to sing and play."

"We do what we always do," the lead guitarist whispered. "Open mike, like I told that girl."

"This crowd isn't going to go for that. Not on the third song. And finding someone willing to be the first is always a problem." The keyboardist surveyed the milling crowd. "Whatever we do, though, we'd better do it fast. The natives are going to get restless real quick."

Kim studied the crowd as well and noticed unhappily that her parents-to-be were looking disappointed. If the dance ended now or was a flop the date might still work out all right, but then again… Without a second thought she flipped up onto the stage. "What's the sitch?" she asked,

The musicians stared at her. "Say what?"

"I couldn't help overhearing. You need someone to fill for vocals for a few minutes?"

"Do you sing?" the bassist asked.

"Well," Kim replied modestly, "I've been known to toss off a song or two in my time." She didn't bother to mention that her time was still over twenty years off and that her last public performance in a talent show had lost out to Ron.

The band exchanged skeptical glances, apparently having heard this sort of thing from other amateurs. The bassist shrugged. "Okay. Check over our selections and pick one."

Kim complied, and realized as she leafed through the sheet music that none of the songs were familiar to her. "I'm afraid I don't know any of these," she admitted truthfully, holding the sheaves of sheet music in either hand. "Do you have anything more recent?"

"If any of this stuff were more recent, it'd have to be a manuscript," the keyboardist replied. "What songs _do_ you know?"

Kim started to answer and then realized that the songs she did know were from groups that didn't even exist yet. "Uh…give me a moment," she told the expectant group. She moved to the edge of the stage and crouched down to speak with Shego, who was keeping a close eye on the miserable Drakken. It took three tries to get her attention.

"What?" Shego answered at last.

"Can you play?"

"I'm not sure. Let me ask my mom."

"Get serious!" Kim hissed.

Shego cocked a jaded eye at Kim. "_You_ get serious. What are you talking about?" After hearing Kim's hasty explanation Shego burst into sarcastic laughter. "You have _got_ to be kidding me! You want me to play accompaniment to some Oh Boyz song for you?"

"We've got to do something!" Kim insisted. "And it doesn't have to one of the Oh Boyz songs. I know other songs. Just not…" She waved the sheef of sheet music. "…'80s oldies. Jimmy told us not to mess up the time stream. But if this dance ends now, that could be exactly what happens. We could end up in a world ruled by… Barry Manilow or something."

"What's wrong with Barry Manilow?" demanded Drakken, seeming offended.

Shego regarded Drakken like a bug in her soup. "Okay, that clinches it," she decided. "You need someone on axe, you got it."

"Well, then," Drakken said hopefully, "while you two are busy, I'll just -"

Shego grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. "Oh, no, little boy blue. We're on stage, you're on stage, too."

"But -" he started to protest.

Despite Drakkens' objections he and Shego joined the band on stage. "This is my backup group. They know the songs I know," Kim explained. "She'll will take lead guitar, and her…uh…companion will take the keyboards. All we need is someone to play some basic progressions on bass."

The three musicians passed over Shego's pale green complexion but stared at Drakken's vivid blue cast. "O-ka-a-ay," the bassist finally said. "I guess that will work. Let me give you an intro. What's your group's name?"

"It's…" Kim hesitated. Drakken would be safely in the background but her parents would undoubtedly recognize her and she couldn't use her real name. "How about…the She-go-gos?" she suggested weakly.

"You cannot be serious!" Shego protested. "I have a rep to consider!"

"That's a long ways off," Kim pointed out.

"You'd be surprised how long bad reps last," Shego retorted. She put her foot down. "We are _not_ the She-go-gos."

Kim put her hands on her hips. "Well, you think of something better, then."

"Enough!" Drakken snapped. "We'll be the Drew Man Group."

Both Kim and Shego gawked at this but the bass player shrugged. "Good enough. Get set up." He walked over to the mike while the three unlikely musicians assumed there positions. Only after Drakken settled in did he realize that he didn't know how to play any instrument.

"Shego!" he called softly as the introduction was being made. "What do I do?"

"Oh for the love of…" Shego stalked over, manipulated some switches and knobs on the keyboard, and then pointed to a button. "Just push this thing down and keep it down. You're the rhythm section." She adjusted the knobs on her own instrument, strummed it to check the sound, and nodded to Kim when the sound met her approval. "Whenever you're ready."

"Right." Kim turned to the mike and then turned back. "What are we playing?"

"_Bad to the Bone_."

"Shego!" Kim glared at her. "It has to be dance music."

"You can dance to it. Besides, the bass player should at least know the chord progression."

"But -"

"Hey, you wanted a lead guitar, then we play this."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Fine. Let's do this."

As the driving bass opening and insistent beat began most of the people on the dance floor looked surprised, but some of the more aggressive dancers began to move in time with the music. To Kim's surprise James Possible and his date were among them. _I guess I don't know everything about my parents_, she thought in wonder. _I wonder what other surprises they have?_ She began to sing, changing the lyrics somewhat to fit the situation as she went.

_On the day she was born_

_The nurses all gathered round._

_They stared in wide wonder_

_At the girl they had found._

_The head nurse spoke up_

_And said, "Leave that one alone."_

_She could tell right away_

_She was bad to the bone._

_Bad to the bone._

_Bad to the bone._

_B-b-b-b-bad to the bone._

_B-b-b-b-bad._

_B-b-b-b-bad…_

Shego immediately got Kim's jibes but didn't seem to care. She actually seemed to enjoy having part of the spotlight and manipulating the instrument she was playing. Drakken was less enthused. He sat behind the keyboard and held down the rhythm generator button as expressions of resignation, boredom, disgust, and frustration crossed his face in turn. As they played the two musicians watched from the wings.

"You know," the keyboardist said after a few minutes, "that gives me an idea."

"What?" his companion whispered.

"Check out that guy on the keyboard."

The guitarist stared at Drakken. "He's just sitting there. Well, he's making faces and stuff, but that's about all."

"Yeah. But maybe we could do something like that. Not sing at all. Just put on some blue make-up like him and play instruments"

The guitar player looked puzzled. "Just play instrumentals?"

"No, no. Play some off-beat stuff. Maybe just percussion, or something. We don't sing, we don't talk, we just do off-the-wall kind of stuff in blue make-up and funky outfits. Avant-garde kind of stuff."

The lead guitarist looked doubtful. "I don't know. It sounds like we'd be like some mutant mimes. No one likes mimes."

"Hey, at least think about it. You wouldn't have to worry about your voice going out during our gigs anymore."

"I guess we could discuss it after the dance." The guitarist rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "A blue man group." He shrugged. "I guess anything is possible."

End of Chapter 21

Author's Notes:

The original lyrics of "Bad to the Bone" are by George Thorogood and are used in this form without permission.

I couldn't help wanting to have a little fun with Jimmy, Kim, Shego, and Drakken being in the past. When I first thought of this in light of the _Back to the Future_ series I wondered how their presence in the past could possibly be instrumental (pun no intended) in bringing about some pop culture phenomenon the way Marty McFly unintentionally started off Chuck Berry's career. The idea of Shego being a rocker appealed to me as well and seemed in keeping with her character. "Bad to the Bone" actually debuted in 1982 and would technically have already been out a year or so in this story, but it sounds exactly like the song she'd want to play even if it is more R&B than classic rock. And I think even Kim, the youngest of the group, would know it, even if it is an "'80s oldie".


	22. Chapter 21 Back to the Present

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 21:

The campus was, aside from the dance, pretty much deserted so that Jimmy had little trouble in gaining access to the storeroom of the main electronics laboratory and locating the mid-'80s components he needed. The main difficulty came with integrating them into Drakken's recall unit, as there was no way to mount the parts directly to the printed circuit board, and each pin had to be soldered to the necessary junction using various lengths of wire. An almost neurotic perfectionist, Jimmy used the finest gage wire he could find and tried to keep the wiring as short and neat as possible, but even so the final result was still far bulkier and less tidy than he would have preferred.

When he met up with the others about fifteen minutes after having left them, the so-called Drew Man Group had ceded the stage to others wanting to showcase their own musical talents. "What's going on?" he asked.

"I have a horrible feeling that we're the ones who actually introduced _karaoke_ into this country," said Shego. She surveyed the mass of wiring on Jimmy's jury-rigged device. "What's with the electronic dreads?"

"Hey!" Jimmy snorted defensively. "You try modifying 21st-century microcircuitry without a wire-bonding unit!"

"Not really on my "A" list at the moment," Shego replied. "Can we go now? It sounds like the songs these people are singing are moving ominously back towards the disco era."

"I have to side with Shego on this one," agreed Kim. "We need to leave, and soon. We can't risk disrupting the time stream any more than we may have already." As thrilled as she was to have played a part in her own parents' courtship, the experience had brought home to her just how fragile the past was. "When will we be within range of the comploder?"

"No way to be certain," Jimmy told her. "From our experiences with the previous interphases it seems that the established past takes precedent over the transient present. That's why we kept getting caught up in what had already happened to us rather than what we were doing when they occurred. But in this case, I'm not sure if this is the present…or the past."

"Excuse me," said Shego. "This is the 1980s. It's the past."

"But what we're doing here is something we've never done before. To us, right now, this is the present. Our present."

Drakken, who had been listening to the exchange, broke in. "Wait a minute. You say we're in the present…and that we're trying to return to the present?" He clutched his head. "My brain hurts."

"I guess Ron was right," observed Kim. "Time travel really is a cornucopia of disturbing concepts."

"It's not too hard to grasp. Like Docter Bonzai said, anywhere you go, there you are. Just remember that wherever you are is always 'here' and 'now'. Returning to the present just means moving our 'here' and 'now' to where it should be." Jimmy started adjusting the controls on the recall device. "I guess all I can do is to continuously send out a recall signal when I think we're getting close. I hope the batteries are fully charged." He looked around the hall and added, "I guess we'd better move to a less conspicuous place."

That suggestion made sense and everyone headed towards the nearest exit. Kim was the last to leave, but before doing so she looked back at her parents-to-be dancing and laughing together. "So long," she said quietly. "See you in…well…five or six years, I guess." After giving them one last look she followed the others to a dark and relatively quiet place in the hall outside, where Drakken was bemoaning the situation.

"It's not fair!" he complained. "It wasn't supposed to be this way!"

"Actually, it was," Jimmy told him.

Drakken gave the boy a look that was a confused blend of both irritation and sorrow. "You know what I mean. I could have had it all. And I would have, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids."

Rufus popped up from Kim's side pouch. "Hey!" he squeaked.

"And your little dog, too. I mean, rodent," Drakken corrected. He hung his head. "Why don't things ever work out for me? Why?"

Kim rolled her eyes. "You want me to take a stab at it?"

Drakken ignored her. "I'll tell you why. Because I can't count on anyone." Shego winced silently at that "The only person I can trust is myself." He caught himself and reconsidered what he had said. "I mean, it was true twenty years ago, and it's true today. I mean, it's true today and will be true in twenty years. That is, when I was twenty-five years younger, I couldn't trust anyone, and –"

"Okay, yeah, all right!" Shego blurted out. "We get your meaning."

That drew Drakken's attention to Shego. "And you, especially, Shego!" he accused bitterly. "You, of all people. If it had been for money, or power, or something like that I could understand. I wouldn't agree, but at least I'd understand. But on the word of these two you turn your back on me – back on me – back on me –" He stopped short, looking amazed as anyone at the reverberation in his voice. "What was that – was that – was that?" he asked.

Jimmy looked expectant. "I think we're approaching the interphase – the interphase – the interphase." He punched a button. "Here goes nothing – goes nothing – goes nothing!" As Jimmy watched he saw the others and his surroundings seem to vibrate like a tuning fork, the way that cartoon characters running into a wall would vibrate. From the others' points of view he seemed to do the same.

"What's hap – hap – hap - happening – happening – happening?" Shego demanded.

"In - in- in – stab – stab – stability – ility –ility," was all Jimmy could say. "Hang – hang – hang on – on –on!"

The vibration got worse, making further verbal communication impossible. Unlike the others, Jimmy realized that this was not just the effects of entering interphase. They were approaching the singularity and immediate past and future were being to complode, blurring what was happening with what just had happened and what was about to happen. As with every situation in which he had been forced to make a judgment call, he wondered if he had waited too long, and whether the opportunity to be returned to their own time had passed. In those interminable moments he wondered why Cindy had not followed his instructions and neutralized the singularity as he had instructed. The conscious part of his mind told him that it was her innate stubbornness, but the part of his mind he hid even from himself understood that it had been something entirely different.

In Drakken's lair Ron and Cindy were experiencing the instability that Jimmy and the others were witnessing as their slice of existence began to slide into the singularity was well. "We – we – we – have to – have to – have to – do – do – do something – thing – thing!" Ron called out.

Cindy didn't answer. She was already at the control panel, trying to concentrate on the buttons she had to push. The reverberation caused by the instability turned the panel into a confusion of shapes and colors and made identification of the controls by sight impossible. Closing her eyes to shut out the distracting images before her, she moved her fingers over the console and found the buttons she needed to press by touch. There was no time left to save existence, if any time in fact remained. She could almost hear Jimmy's voice echoing about her, yelling the single word, "Now!" _I'm sorry, Jimmy_, she thought. _I tried to wait. I really did_. Then she pressed the buttons.

She didn't know what to expect. The instability, as disorienting as it had been, had not involved any physical disturbance the way an earthquake or hurricane would have done. Activating the temporal comploson device had not unleashed bolts of energy or blasts of power to tell her that anything had happened. As she waited, eyes shut, she heard a voice say in a perfectly clear and normal tone of voice, "Cut it a little closet there, didn't you Vortex?"

She opened her eyes to see Jimmy standing on the platform with that smugly superior expression she knew so well. "Don't knock it, Neutron. If I hadn't -" She stopped and looked worried. "Did we – did it work?"

As if on cue, four tones sounded at Kim's side. Rufus handed the Kim-municator up to her and she activated the transceiver. "Wade?"

"Kim? You there?"

Kim smiled in relief. "I should ask you that. Sitch it, Wade. What happened?"

"Well, nothing, I think. As near as I can remember, I was in my room all the time. But it was so freaky. I was at my fourth birthday party, and sick with the measles when I was nine, and…" He voice trailed off. "Maybe my mom is right. Maybe I should get of this room once in a while."

"Just be sure you forward your calls. Promise?"

Wade grinned. "That's a deal."

"Hey, Wade," Ron called out. "What about Cyber Wade? And the Kim-mando suit?"

"No problems there," Wade replied. "The emergency continency routine shut down once I logged back on. You can just put the suit back for the next time you might need it, for emergencies and stuff."

Ron looked uncomfortable. "Uh…about that. The suit kind of got damaged in a fight. It doesn't really work anymore."

"No problems. I'll send some nanite repair units to get it patched up. Glad it came in handy. Wade out." The Kim-municator screen went dark and Kim slipped it into her side pouch.

Jimmy had been talking with Cindy. "I thought I told you if you didn't hear from me in one hour to neutralize the singularity!" he snapped.

"And leave you all stranded in the past?" Cindy shot back. "Leaving you there wouldn't have bothered me, but in case you didn't notice it the world needs Kim Possible."

"That's not the point!" Jimmy argued. "It was a dangerous thing to do. Everything could have been wiped out because of what you did. You risked it all on an illogical impulse devoid of any rational validity!" He stood there, glaring at her and breathing hard before his features and voice softened. "Thanks. I picked the right person for the job."

Cindy sidestepped the compliment, embarrassed. "Well, I guess that wraps up everything," she said.

"Not quite," said Drakken. Unnoticed by the others, save perhaps for Shego, he had retrieved the temporal complosion device. "There's still a matter of this little gizmo. I still have some big plans for this. There's a whole history book to re-write, and I've got the pen to do it. I'll just be sure to go back further this time."

"Shego!" Kim called. "I thought you were watching Drakken!" She took a step forward and Drakken moved a finger over a button on the comploder, forcing her to stop.

Shego shrugged. "I was watching. He went over, disconnected all those wires, and now we've got it." She smiled. "I have to say, I wholly approve."

"What? But I thought – you were -" Cindy spluttered.

Shego loosed a cold, malicious laugh. "Don't you guys ever get it?" she mocked. "I'm evil. _Evil_. Now that the danger is over, there's no reason to side with you losers anymore."

Ron gritted his teeth. "We should have known."

"No," said Kim. "I should have known."

"Actually," Jimmy added, "I did know." He stood there calmly with his arms folded. "Fool me twice and all that, Shego. After you and Drakken tricked us into getting the device for you in the first place, did you really think I'd trust either of you once things were working your way again? I didn't with the Yolkians, and I didn't with you."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Drakken sneered. "We have the device and you don't."

Jimmy nodded. "That's true," he conceded. "But I'll bet you didn't do any power calculations for the device. _I did_. It turns out that the power cell is good for six uses before it needs a new power cell. And in all the excitement -"

"In all the excitement," Drakken interrupted, "you forgot whether it was used five times, or six, yadda-yadda-yadda, blah, blah, blah."

"No," Jimmy corrected him. "I know exactly how many times it was used." He leaned forward defiantly. "But I'm betting that you _don't_!"

Drakken looked confused and began ticking off his fingers. Encumbered by the temporal complosion device he passed it to Shego while he figured it out. "I used it to go back. You used it to go back. We used it to get back. It neutralized that singularity. That makes four." He grinned in triumph. "There are two charges left!" He looked at Shego with somewhat less confidence. "Right?"

Shego shrugged. "You tell me."

Jimmy spoke up. "You forgot the test run they always do on these prototypes. That makes five, which gives you one more use out of if before it's useless to you. Go back into the past, and this time you walk home."

"I can still change the way things are!" Drakken argued.

"You tried to change Kim's past, and failed," Jimmy replied. "And I'm pretty sure you'll fail again. I mean, you're the one who said your plans never work out. But maybe you'll be lucky this time. Go on back. I'm sure Shego wouldn't mind reliving the past two or three decades all over again. Or will it be two or three centuries this time?" He smirked. "Have fun changing the past, Drakken. You'll be making a new future that you'll never live to see. So go ahead. Make my yesterday."

As Cindy, Kim and Ron held their breath Jimmy stood where he was in cool defiance. "He's bluffing, Shego," Drakken said. "Push the button!"

Shego studied Jimmy's impassive features and slowly shook her head. "I don't think so."

"He's bluffing! I'm sure of it!" Drakken scrambled for the comploder device but Shego kept Drakken at a distance with one hand and the device out of reach with the other. "The good guys never bluff well! You know that!"

"Yeah, well, he either got a lot better than most or he's on the level. Either way, I'm not chancing it. One trip to the past is enough for me. A one-way trip is definitely not on my travel itinerary." She set the comploder down on the floor and shoved the unit across the floor away from her. "Like the kid said, time travel is pretty dangerous stuff."

Drakken went limp as Kim retrieved the comploder. "Why, Shego? Why do you do this to me? Why do I take it?"

"Maybe because of this," Shego replied. She tossed Drakken over one shoulder and, before anyone could react, vaulted over the others and reached the door. "So long, losers!" she called back as she darted through. Kim started to follow but paused.

"Aren't you going after them?" asked Cindy.

Kim shook her head. "They'll show up again," she replied. "When they do, we'll get them. For now, Wade's probably got the authorities heading this way to mop up Drakken's henchmen and close this place down. And we have the temporal complosion device to return." She turned to Jimmy. "I've got to know. Was there really only enough power to use this thing one more time?"

Jimmy shrugged. "Beats me. I was only guessing that they ran a test on it. And I don't feel up to testing out my theory." He looked closely at her. "Did Shego really get past you on her own, or did you just let her get away?"

Kim also shrugged. "I'm not really sure. On one hand, Shego used to be a hero, and she came through for us when it mattered. And maybe there's some of that hero still somewhere inside her even if she doesn't like to admit it. I mean, she caved awfully quickly when Drakken was certain you were bluffing. And as greedy and selfish as she is, I don't think she wants to have the world destroyed any more than we do."

Jimmy nodded. "But what about Drakken?"

"Right now," Kim replied absently, "I think they're having a real heart-to-heart about some things that Shego has on her mind."

"Really, Shego," Drakken was complaining as Shego piloted the escape craft from Drakken's lair. "You should have called his bluff. I'm sure we could have made it back." He paused as Shego put the craft on auto-pilot and turned to him with a severe expression. "What are you doing?"

"I think it's time we had a talk," she said ominously. "Maybe a short talk, maybe a long talk, but a talk. How long it takes is entirely up to you."

Drakken fidgeted nervously. "Up to…me?"

"Mm-hmm," Shego murmured. She held up her index finger and a jet of emerald flame burst from it. "Let's start by talking about respecting the judgment of others…then about why it's wrong to use other people's DNA patterns…and finally about how we never, _ever_, put them in chains when they try to help us in spite of ourselves." She frowned and leaned forward, and Drakken shrank back with a whimper. "So, what'll it be, Doc? A nong talk? Or a short talk?"

End of Chapter 21


	23. Epilogue Seems Like Old Times

A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Epilogue:

It was very early in the morning when Drakken and Shego had fled, but it took some time for the law enforcement authorities Wade had contacted to arrive. As it turned out, the timing proved to be impeccable. Drakken's henchmen were just waking up when the official agents stormed the lair, catching them completely unawares and in the midst of preparing breakfast. The mop-up operation was uneventful and went quickly, and the base was secured in short order, which sat well with Kim, Jimmy, and Cindy. Ron, however, was upset at the realization that there had been provisions within reach had they only been able to search the lair more thoroughly.

"Chill, Ron," Kim told him. "It's not the end of the world. Well, not any more," she added. "We'll just score some breakfast when we get home."

"I know," Ron sulked. "But Belgian waffles with blueberries! And they're all being taken as evidence. That is so unfair." Rufus sighed sadly in commiseration.

"Frozen Belgian waffles," pointed out Cindy in an attempt to comfort them.

"Frozen or not, I haven't had any in, like, forever. You save the world, and what do you get?" He slumped dismally to the floor. "Cold cereal. Without fruit, I might add."

Jimmy consulted his wrist-comp and thought about it. "Retroville is on the way back to Middleton," he said. "By the time we get there the Candy Bar will be open. We could always stop off and get something to eat there before you head home. I'm sure that Sam could whip up some waffles. I mean, he has to make those waffle cones somehow."

Rufus perked up and Ron looked less miserable. "Really?"

"My treat," Jimmy offered.

"Okay, then," Ron brightly called out as he jumped to his feat. "Who's up for some waffles?"

"That's the spirit," Kim said, but her expression was subdued and faintly troubled.

The Strato XL was where Cindy and Ron had left it but there was no room for all four to fit into the rocket. Fortunately Shego and Drakken had, in their hurry to escape, left a carefully disguised panel to a hidden hanger ajar so that they found several additional craft available to them. Jimmy and Cindy boarded Jimmy's rocket for the trip back, and Kim and Ron selected a hovercraft that would get them back to Middleton. The Strato easily took the lead, but Jimmy kept the airspeed low enough to allow the hovercraft to keep up with them without any trouble.

In the hovercraft Ron remarked, "You're being awfully quiet, K.P. Make some noise. We just saved the world…and then some."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Rufus agreed.

"Yeah, that's good. It's just that I've been thinking about some things."

"Well, that's good, too. Right?" Kim didn't answer and Ron looked worried. "Right?" he repeated.

Kim fidgeted, not really sure how to answer the question. "Well, I guess…maybe. It sort of depends on how you look at it."

Rufus made a worried noise and Ron frowned to himself. _I don't like where this is going_, he thought. But all he said was, "Look at what?"

"Well, us." Kim took her eyes of the rocket in front them to look at him. It wasn't a smart thing to do, she knew, but at this altitude at this time of day it was unlikely they'd hit anything. "Before we were us, we were pretty tight. And now, it seems like we've lost something. You know what I mean?"

"You mean, how I've been acting lately?"

Kim nodded. "Exactly. Ron, I know how you feel about me, and I feel the same, but we can't lose focus when we go mission mode. I guess I hurt you pretty badly when Wade and I grounded you, but it's only because I care about what happens to you. I need to know that you're going to be all right."

"Is that all?" Ron felt a great sense of relief sweep over him. "Hey, it's no big anymore. I have the suit now, right?" Kim looked startled but Ron kept talking. "With that to help me, the Ron-man will always be there to play. You won't have to worry about me anymore. I'll be right in there with you now, every punch and kick of the way."

Kim nodded. "That's what I mean. I don't think you should use the suit anymore. Except for emergencies, I mean."

Ron was stunned. "What?"

"Ron," Kim told him, her voice suddenly all business, "the suit is just a suit. What happens if it fails? One of the syntha-drones figured out what was going on and nearly took you out by disabling the suit. You were lucky this time. But what about the next time? Or the next? Or…" She broke off and shook her head. "I don't want you to risk it."

Ron's expression changed from incomprehension to indignation. "Oh. I see. I understand. No competition in Kim Possible's life. Is that it?"

"We aren't competitors, Ron," Kim protested. "We're partners. Or we're supposed to be. We're supposed to look out for each other, remember? If you used the suit you'd be taking risks that you just aren't up to! I mean, I couldn't save the world without you…but the way things are I can't save it with you, either. I need things to be the way they used to be, or my career is over."

"I never thought I'd see the day," Ron complained bitterly. "All these years I thought you'd want only good things for me. But this…" He stared coldly at Kim, who was looking distressed. "I finally have the chance to measure up to the great Kim Possible and the first thing she does is try to knock me down again to the sidekick buffoon role." His voice became more hostile. "Why didn't you just go with Drakken and Shego when they took off? At least they don't object to my trying to be more than just a distraction when I tangle with them. At least with enemies you know where you…" Ron's voice trailed off as the whisper of a memory crossed his mind.

_The virtue of the arrow is not in the strength of the bow. It finds the mark in being true to itself. So must it be with you. Embrace the essence of Ron Stoppable._

He looked over quickly at Kim, whose head was bowed and eyes were closed. He hadn't been trying to be hero when he had fought the syntha-drone. And he hadn't had the suit when he had defeated it. He had been Kim's best friend and partner who had promised to watch her back, and doing whatever he needed to do to keep that promise. "Kim?" he asked in a much quieter and gentler tone.

Kim looked up, wondering at the strange change in his voice. "What?"

Ron sucked in air, knowing that what he was going to say would come out in a rush and not allow him to take another breath. "Since you and I got together, all I really wanted was to be someone that you'd never regret having with you. I know that you can do anything, and I wanted you to know that you'd have someone who could do it alongside you. Well, suit or no suit, I can't promise that I can do that. But I can promise you this." He took a second to steady his voice. "I promise you that, whatever happens, you can _always_ count on me to be there for you. Even if it means being left behind to watch your back." He added, almost too softly to hear, "That's all I've ever been able to promise."

Kim was speechless for a long moment, and Ron wondered if he had convinced Kim that he wasn't the person who should be with her on her missions. Then Kim threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "That's all I ever wanted, Ron," she whispered. "I'm sorry I took so long to let you figure that out."

Kim's abrupt move had tilted the hovercraft and Ron and Kim found themselves sliding backwards towards the edge of the craft Kim disentangled herself and grabbed the controls, flipping the hovercraft level again, but the maneuver pitched Ron over the opposite side of the vehicle with a wail of surprise. As he disappeared over the side there was a tearing sound, and pants portion of Ron's suit hung empty from a projecting hook. "Oh, man!" Ron cried in disgust. "Not again!"

"Ron!" Kim cried. She wheeled the hovercraft around in a desperate attempt to recover Ron. As she did so, a small projectile emerged from the sleeve of Ron's flailing arm, trailing a thin but incredibly strong line behind it, and wrapped around a projection of the hovercraft. The next instant Ron was being carried back towards to the vehicle as powerful servos retracted the line. Kim stared in amazement as Ron re-appeared over the side of the craft.

"I had one of those?" Ron asked rhetorically as he climbed back aboard and disengaged the grappling dart. "Why didn't someone tell me I had one of those?"

"You didn't ask," he heard Wade's scratchy voice reply.

Ron wondered if Wade had been monitoring the whole time. "Do I have to ask for everything?" he grumbled.

His remark had been directed to Wade, but it was Kim who answered. "Not everything," she smiled.

In the Strato XL Cindy had had heard Ron's yelp and looked back. "Are those two kissing back there?" she asked in surprise.

Jimmy snuck a look back and nodded. "Yup."

"And did he take off his pants?" she gasped in shock.

Jimmy took a longer look this time. "Looks like. Although, since it was a one-piece cybersuit, I'd say it was more likely they were ripped off."

Cindy couldn't believe that Jimmy was taking it so calmly. "Do you realize what you're saying?"

"Hey, he still has his other pants on. It was just an outer suit. You should know that."

"Even so…" Cindy grumbled.

"Hey, what's the big?" Jimmy asked. "You were there when he first put them on. Why should you be so shocked at seeing them come off? And I seem to recall," he went on, "that there was one time when we had some problems keeping our pants on."

Cindy glared at him. "Yeah. Thanks to a certain big-brained boob's nanobots."

Jimmy was used to personal insults but objected strenuously to Cindy's misuse of technical terms. "Those were nanochips. There's a difference."

"Oh, that's right," Cindy answered sweetly. "One tried to take over the world, and the other tried to delete it." Her voice hardened as she growled, "Big difference."

"You'd better believe it," Jimmy said. "Nanochips are -"

"Oh, save it," Cindy grumped. "Just do me a favor and don't try any of that kissy stuff with me, Neutron."

"Trust me, Vortex," Jimmy assured her, "there is no way I would."

Cindy settled back for the rest of the flight home with a grunt, and as she did so she could almost swear that she heard Jimmy mutter one last thing under his breath. She wasn't quite able to catch it, but although she couldn't be absolutely certain, it sounded suspiciously to her as though his parting shot had been, "But time will tell."

THE END

Author's Notes:

As I mentioned very early on this was a parting salute to the Disney show _Kim Possible_, so this epilogue concentrated mainly on Kim and Ron. As I understand it there is only one more unaired episode of _Kim Possible_ left, so I wanted to give my views of what direction Kim and Ron's relationship will take after the events of "So the Drama". With new episodes of _The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron_ being released there will be plenty of time and opportunities to figure out what will actually be happening with Jimmy and Cindy in future fanfic stories.

One reader raised a good point in saying that Ron never did give his remark on time travel being a cornucopia of disturbing concepts as the time travel events of _A Sitch in Time_ (as I have pointed out) never actually happened. That's absolutely true and it was a definite lapse on my part. All I can suggest is that 1) in traveling through time some parallel events come across as déjà vu, or 2) he actually used it before on another occasion, but that was during an incident that wasn't shown in an episodes (like the events Kim refers to when she calls in favors). It was just too interesting a quote about time travel for me to resist putting in.


End file.
